a new technology with a long history
Rubber remains a critical material to a number of industries and for a number of applications.
Rubber waste is a global problem which is being addressed by a numerous people and bodies all over the world.
This section contains a brief overview of the manufacturing of rubber, the problem of rubber waste and and some of the current approaches as follows:
The need for efficient and effective recycling technologies has never been clearer, particularly in consumer orientated societies. On a global scale an estimated 500 million tonnes of waste is generated each year.
Waste rubber continues to attract a high level of attention with more than 10 million tonnes of rubber being scrapped annually (more than 60% of this being in the form of tyres) and with known stockpiles in excess of 20 million tonnes.
There are growing concerns regarding the environmental impact of these rapidly growing stockpiles.
As current technology does not enable true recycling of rubber, efforts have been focussed on the extension of the product’s working life, the chemical regeneration of the material, the ‘downcycling’ of the material into lower specification applications and the recovery of energy from the material through incineration. Clear limitations are associated with each of these approaches.
In order to further focus attention on this problem legislation is being drafted, particularly in Europe and America, which eliminates the disposal of rubber in landfill sites and increases the requirement on manufacturers to include recycled materials in their new products.
HSM technology addresses this need with a simple, effective process capable of returning a wide range of materials to a state from which they can be used to manufacture new products.
Watson Brown has patented and protected its Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) related to HSM technology. This IPR covers the machinery used to process the materials, the process itself and a number of applications that can be generated using the process.
HSM technology has been applied to a wide range of rubber types. The condition of the materials has ranged from mixed degraded tyre granulate through to "clean" in-house waste of known composition and history.
The resultant materials can be recured into a new product form, the performance of which is usually related to the performance and condition of the base materials.
In order to test whether HSM processing provides a material suitable for your purposes, a programme of trials and testing is available.
HSM Technology provides a new class of materials with the potential to spawn a number of new applications and novel business approaches. These could include:
