THE ADHESION OF NATURAL-RUBBER TO STEEL AND THE USE OF THE PEEL TEST TO STUDY ITS NATURE

The peel test has been used to study the adhesion achieved between a s imple natural rubber compound and mild steel by injection moulding in the presence of a commercial bonding system. Peel energies were calcul ated from the peel force results by allowing for the elastic energy st ored in the detached rubber strip. The peel energy was found to be ins ensitive to the changes of peel rate evaluated in this work. Peel ener gy increased by a factor of about five as the peel angle increased fro m 30 degrees to 90 degrees. The locus of failure was cohesive within t he rubber, but moved more deeply within the rubber and produced a seve rely torn fracture surface. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.