Fluororubber Aged Under Continuous Compression Set at Elevated Temperatures Available to Purchase

Fluororubbers are cured copolymers based on fluorolefins. Their high thermal and chemical stability added to their mechanical strength lead them to be used in aggressive environments as hoses, seal elements and pipelines for transport of fluids. Studies are needed to evaluate the material behavior under an operating environment due to degradation susceptibility of general elastomers. But the most of these studies are of long duration making them unworkable. So, short term tests under operating simulated environment are required, and some models can be applied to estimate the material behavior under the work conditions at long term. In this work, specimens of a fluororubber were aged under compression in different temperatures. Arrhenius model was used to study their behavior. An increase of stress relaxation was observed by increasing temperature. Weight change and infrared spectroscopy were also employed to evaluate chemical ageing. It was verified that the association of different ageing agents such as chemical, mechanical and thermal is crucial for correct understanding of the material global behavior. Meanwhile, the complex phenomena in a material under multiple agents make it very difficult to reliably predict lifetime.