Novel foodstuff conveyor belts compound for energy saving: The effect of microwave pre-heating and mixed fillerson mechanical properties

Abstract

This research presents an effect of microwave power being utilized in preheating of a foodstuff conveyor belts compound (FCBc), with or without mixed fillers, and sulfur at different volumes of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 phr respectively. Prior to hydraulic molding press at 150 oC, an FCBc is preheated for one minute through an industrial microwave system at a frequency of 2.45 GHz along with microwave power of 340, 850 and 1,700 watts whereas the cure timeis a time 50%. The result shows that the FCBc with mixed fillers and 1.0 phr sulfur with microwave power at 340 watts demonstrates an effective crosslink between the rubber and the fillers which subsequently produces the FCBc that contains better mechanical properties, not only at the lower cost on raw material but also the curing time reduces to 40.20 % per production round.