While most people associate rubber with tyres, ‘carbon black’, which gives automotive tyres their colouring as well as their stiffness, strength and abrasive resistance, is another essential component.
However, particles of carbon black, which need to be dispersed throughout synthetic and natural rubbers when tyres are produced, are notoriously abrasive.
As a result, tyre manufacturers tend to experience difficulties with parts of their manufacturing plant, and especially their bushings, when producing some of the one billion tyres that are manufactured globally.
When one tyre manufacturer in South Africa’s automotive hub of Port Elizabeth experienced these difficulties, it turned to Gahreez Industrial and Plastics founder Gahreez Hammond, who is an important supplier of bearing and polymer wear material to the automotive industry.
Hammond recommended bearing material Vesconite Hilube as a replacement for brass bushings on the presses.
“Vesconite Hilube can handle abrasive applications, is internally lubricated, carries a high load, and does not swell,” he notes.
Having implemented the use of Vesconite Hilube, the tyre manufacturer has been satisfied with the results and has been consistently using Vesconite Hilube in this application for several years.
Other companies in the automotive industry, including OEMs and factories supplying seats, roof liners and other automotive components, have also switched to Vesconite Hilube bushings, informs Hammond.
Some 80% of the companies that he supplies are associated with the heavy-machinery-intensive automotive industry, he notes.
