Abstract
Since the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, rubber bearings have been increasingly adopted nationwide. Recently, however, several cases of surface cracking have been reported in the cold region.
We tried to find out the mechanism of ozone cracking under low environmental temperature, and proposed the method to prevent such cracking and to evaluate weatherproof performance of rubber materials. Reliability of such methods was verified by outdoor exposure tests. Further we conducted research on the influence of cracking to bearing performance and confirmed the practicality in the use of natural rubber bearing in cold region.
