OK...
Was reading about tire life, etc... and was reminded of an industrial product I used to use in the printing press field.

On many offset presses, there are rubber mats which transfer an image to paper. This thin sheet of rubber is wrapped around and squeezed between two metal cylinders for say hundreds of thousands of rotations a day and in some cases, near 24x7 operation. Very brutal to the rubber "blanket" material.

We used a product called rubber rejuvenator between each run to "recondition the rubber" blanket. It worked very, very well. Cleaned it's surface, restored perfect feel and helped extend the life greatly. Not using this product, the rubber would go bad MUCH faster.

Anyway, I have always wondered what this type of solution was and if it had an automotive application, such as tires or belts and hoses. All things being equal, it *could* give a real improvement to tire performance. Anyone know what I am talking about?

 

Sorry about the misspelling in the thread title.

Here is an example from Fuji

http://www.fgsc.ca/fgsc.ca/html/pressRoom/misc03.html



Are there any tire compound experts here that can elaborate on using this type of sulution on a tire or other rubber parts? From first hand experience it really works very very well for it's original intended use.

I would be intereseted in opinions on extending tire life and resisting the natural hardening that occurs during tire use.

 

i have used something called formula V on my race tires. it is a rubber softener. different people report different results- my impression is that it is most impressive on tires that are hard from age, rather than from heat cycles. it works, it is a pain to use, and the ingredients are particularly toxic.

james