Standard Profil opening doors to more sustainable automotive sealing

Edinburgh, UK – Standard Profil (SP) has been working with Birla Carbon on the development of automotive sealing products incorporating a ‘sustainable’ carbon black filler.

In a paper presented at Rubbercon 2023 in Edinburgh, Yusuf Güner of SP’s R&D department reported on the development of an EPDM-based compound using ‘sustainable carbonaceous material’ (SCM).

The carbon in question was a Birla product, labelled Continua 8000 SCM, which is produced by the pyrolysis of end-of-life tires, Güner explained.

As well as exhibiting a lower carbon footprint than carbon black, the filler is said to feature a low PAH-content and low electrical conductivity.

The presenter went on to report the results of tests on EPDM sealing compounds using the SCM instead of carbon black at different loading ratios.

The R&D work involved modifying the compound to optimise rheological and mechanical properties, such as compression set, tensile strength and modulus, explained Güner.

Standard Profil, he said, found that the SCM offered an effective part-replacement for carbon black: producing EPDM sealing products with good mechanical properties.

Particularly promising results were found when replacing 50% of carbon black with SCM – yielding a formulation with 35% lower CO2e emissions than a reference compound, reported Güner.