Abstract
Silicone rubber is known as a material that carries variety of excellent properties such as high heat resistance and flavorless nature. Moreover, because silicone rubber also carries odorless nature, thus it is widely used in the production plant and industrial equipment of beverage or food. Typical examples of industrial equipment include beverage dispenser and cup-type vending machine, where the silicone rubber is often used as tube or gasket in the hot drink flow. Silicone rubber tube for beverage as mentioned above is mostly manufactured by processes including mastication, hot air vulcanization, postcure or boiling water immersion. In recent years, the platinum vulcanized silicone rubber has become one of the main processing methods instead of the organic-peroxide vulcanization due to the urge of taste improvement. However, it was understood that the rate of addition reaction is generally slower in the platinum vulcanization rather than organic peroxide. Thus the authors re-conducted experiments for reviewing conditions for the hot air vulcanization and different postcure parameters. The results clearly indicated various improvements in general physical property, heat resistance, and adhesion level to stainless steel of platinum vulcanized silicone rubber.
