Development of low cost natural rubber floor tile product with fire resistant property and using high finesse

Abstract

This research aims to develop the natural-rubber floor tiles mixed with high fineness ethylene vinyl acetate plastic wastes (EVA plastics) from the factories. The study use natural-rubber STR 20 at 100 phr with various contents of EVA plastics (e.g. 0, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 phr) and then mixed with chemical substance at constant ratio include zinc oxide at 5 phr, stearic acid at 2 phr, mercaptobenzothiazole at 0.5 phr, diphenyl guanidine at 0.2 phr and sulfur at 3 phr. The samples are ground by two-roll mill and formed by compression molding at 150 degree Celsius with 30x30x0.2 cm of dimension. The properties of the natural-rubber floor tiles are tested under ASTM standard. From the results, it is found that the natural-rubber floor tiles mixed with 10 phr of EVA plastics is the suitable ratio for using as the rubber floor tiles in building. This ratio can increase the hardness, tensile strength and wear resistant properties, and decrease the density and thermal insulation properties when compare to the natural-rubber floor tiles without EVA plastic.