Application of polyacrylate rubber for high performance automotive gasketsand seals

Polyacrylate rubber compounds have been used for a number of years for manu facturing oil seals used in current high performance automotive engines. Th e work reported here was done at the time of the development of these engin es, which required new sealing material. Polyacrylate rubber was already kn own to withstand the use temperature of 150 degreesC with adequate oil resi stance. The unknown was the mechanical performance, particularly the endura nce at the service condition. A comparative study was undertaken with compo unds prepared from polyacrylate and fluoro-rubber. The latter was already k nown to have adequate performance and, therefore, was the reference materia l of this study. The strategy was to conduct a minimum amount of work and t o achieve the goal in the shortest time. The temperature dependence of modu lus up to 200 degreesC, high-speed deformation behavior with subsequent rel axation and endurance at 150 degreesC indicated that polyacrylate rubber wo uld give satisfactory performance.