Antioxidant Systems for Elastomeric Tank Pad Formulations
Abstract
Military tracked vehicles are equipped with rubber blocks or endless- band rubber track to reduce shock, noise, wear, and damage to road surfaces. Historically, field performance of the elastomeric components of such tracked vehicles as the M-60 and m-1 Army tanks has been poor. Current service life for the M-1 tank pads has been reported as low as 300 miles--significantly short of the 2,000 mile life expectancy. The problem is further complicated with off-the- road service conditions where pads fail at a much faster rate. The severity of the wear is more pronounced on the M-1 main battle tank than on the M-60 due to increased weight and speed with a smaller rubber footprint, which produces higher stresses and heat build-up. Therefore, costly and frequent replacement is necessary to keep the tanks operational. Conventional track pads based on styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) usually fail prematurely in service because of poor chunking and chipping resistance, excessive wear, blow-out or rubber-to- metal bond failure. Obviously, improved service durability of rubber track pads would provide economic, tactical and logistical advantages for modern, high speed tracked vehicles. This study on antioxidants points out the best protection system against oxidative degradation. Keywords: Rubber.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA195738
Entities
People
- Gumersindo Rodriguez
- Paul Touchet