Abstract
The rice-bran carbon-material (RB carbon) is developed for a useful utilization of the rice bran, which is one of the agricultural wastes in Japan. The RB carbon has some unique mechanical properties such as low Young's modulus, low friction coefficient and high abrasion resistance. Therefore, the RB carbon is expectedto use as a sliding element in linear guides and linear sliders. The RB carbon is made from the defatted rice bran, which is impregnated with a resol-type phenol resin and then carbonized at high temperature under nitrogen gas atmosphere. However, since the defatted rice bran and the impregnated resol-type phenol resininclude some inorganic components, it is anticipated that the water-soluble and absorbency inorganic compounds are produced during the carbonizing process. The inorganic components are considered to decrease the mechanical strength and hygroscopic expansion under the aqueous environments. In this study, the improvement of water resistance of the RB carbon was examined, especially some manufacturing processes were examined to reduce the amounts of inorganic components. The modified manufacturing processes sufficiently achieved the high water resistance in the RB carbon.
