Adhesion of brass plated steel cords to natural rubber: Dynamic and statistical study of adhesion failure

Adhesion of natural rubber to brass plated steel cords is of extreme importance to the rubber industry in general, and the tire industry in particular. Here, we present a novel promoter, Kaolin Modified Rubber (KMR) and study its use in promoting adhesion of such a system compared to a widely used commercial promoter in the industry (manobond). Our results reveal the superiority of the new adhesion promoter and its durability during severe dynamic conditions. We modified a standard de Mattie Flexing machine for this purpose and used standard T-Pull out test samples for studying the adhesion under dynamic conditions. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was also used to confirm the mechanical results obtained and they came in excellent agreement with the dynamic tests conducted.