Course: Advanced Rubber Compounding
October 29 @ 9:00 am - October 31 @ 5:00 pm
Wednesday, October 29 – Friday, October 31, 2025; 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET daily
CEUs: 0.38 (To receive the CEUs, attendees must attend the course live and promptly complete the survey evaluation after the course.)
Location: This course will be available in-person at Akron Rubber Development Laboratory – 75 E. Robinson Ave., Barberton, OH 44203.
Course Overview: This course provides in-depth coverage of rubber compounding and testing. It will include classroom, laboratory and factory experiences. This course is a natural follow-up course to our “Intermediate Rubber Compounding” course and will go into more detail on all the topics covered in that course. Classroom subjects include elastomers, fillers/reinforcement, plasticizers/process aids, antidegradants, cure systems, adhesion, foaming agents, and flame retardants, compound design, warehouse storage and useful references. Testing laboratory subjects will include process testing, physical properties, abrasion, aged physical properties, low temperature properties, dynamic testing, adhesion, ozone/weathering testing, chemical analytics and microscopy. Processing subjects will include mixing, milling, calendering, extrusion and molding. There will be tours of the testing labs, as well as a demonstration of mixing, milling, extrusion and molding.
Recommended Pre-requisite Course(s):
- Processing and Testing of Rubber (4 hour) and/or Essentials of Rubber Technology (4 hours) or Intermediate Rubber Compounding (8 hour)
Topics Covered:
- Polymer overview
- polymerization methods, polymer terms, viscoelastic properties and glass transition temperature
- Common elastomers and comparisons of their properties
- Carbon black and non-black fillers
- filler properties and their role in rubber
- Process oils, plasticizers and process aids
- chemistries, compatibilities and the effects on rubber compounds
- Antidegradants
- Ozonolysis, oxidation and the role antidegradants play in mitigating degradation
- Vulcanization (Curing)
- The various chemistries of curing are discussed including sulfur donors, accelerators and activators. Includes an examination of rubber properties related to the type of cure
- Adhesion, Foam Agents and Flame Retardants
- A brief overview of the types of chemicals used and the relationship with rubber
- Mixing and Processing of Rubber
- A review of mixing, milling and processing including curing into final rubber article
- Testing of Rubber
- physical properties, analytical measurements, plastics, engineering and microscopy.
Price: $1,400 Members / $1,650 Non-members / Free for Undergraduate Student Members / $100 for Other Student Members
Instructors: Paul Merda and Nicki Hershberger, Akron Rubber Development Laboratory
Paul Merda is the Education Coordinator & Technical Advisor at ARDL. He has previous experience as a Lab Technician, Polymer Adhesives Chemist & High School Science Teacher with 18 years in industry and 13 teaching.
Nicki Hershberger
– Currently: Compound Development Manager / Sr. Technical Advisor at ARDL
– Previously: Polymerics Inc. and Sid Richardson Carbon and Energy
– Education: B.A. degree Kent State University
– Experience: 24 years rubber experience in custom mixing and compound development for extrusion, molding, and auto-claved applications