UBE - Polybutadiene Rubber
UBE Elastomer’s synthetic rubber business manufactures and sells butadiene rubber (BR) which is one of the typical synthetic rubber. Our BR is said to be high-cis BR synthesized by cobalt catalyst system. Our company has production sites in Japan, Thailand, China, and Malaysia.
1. Characteristics of process
Our processing technology enables us to easily control the BR’s molecular weight, branching degree of molecular chains, and molecular weight distribution.
Furthermore, our technology realizes combining BR with high-crystalline syndiotactic polybutadiene (SPB) resin.
2.Characteristics of productsUBEPOL BR® (high-cis BR)
UBEPOL BR® meets a wide variety of customer demand, including the grades with sperior physical properties such as abrasion resistance, rebound, heat buildup, and crack growth resistance and the grades with excellent processing characteristics such as mixing with various fillers, extrudability, and roll banding.
UBEPOL VCR® (composite of rubber and resin)
UBEPOL VCR® is the grade that combines BR and high-crystalline syndiotactic polybutadiene (SPB) resin. SPB resin is well dispersed in BR matrix (Figure: TEM images). UBEPOL VCR®, having characteristic polymer alloy structure, can contribute to improve hardness, elastic modulus, crack growth resistance, and extrusion characteristics (extrusion output and dimensional stability) and weight reduction/thinning of rubber products.
3.Applications
- Various tires, including for passenger vehicles, trucks/buses, construction vehicles, two-wheeled vehicles and bicycles
- Various industrial products, including polystyrene modifiers, conveyor belts, hoses, anti-vibration rubber, and casters
- Commodities, including shoe soles and golf balls