The workshop "Mixing of Rubber Compounds" held by the German Rubber Society and the German Institute for Rubber Technology took place in Freudenberg. The fully booked seminar was offered as two parallel courses in German and English language, with more than 70 participants from all over the world.

The first part of the seminar consisted of more than 30 high level comprehensive academic, theoretical, and practical lectures on topics like configuration / process engineering characteristics of the internal mixer, influence of process parameters on product properties, and the latest testing technology and industry trends.

Afterwards the knowledge was practically implemented: The participants had the possibility to implement their own recipes with the HF Advise ES Mixer Control System in the HF Technical Centre equipped with latest laboratory and production internal mixers. Thereby the latest tangential and intermeshing rotor technologies could be tested.

The participants competed against each other in a challenge with the aim to obtain the best compound in terms of quality - measured and supported by MonTech Rubber testing instruments - within the shortest mixing time.

Quality data obtained included static and dynamic cure measurements on Moving Die Rheometers and Rubber Process Analyzers (MonTech D-RPA 3000), Filler Dispersion measured on a MonTech DisperTester 3000 and Mooney Viscosity (MonTech MV 3000 Basic). Along with the instruments and sample preparation equipment, MonTech presented its LIMS software capabilities with direct integration into the HF Advise Mixer Control System for production integrated quality control processes and lean production.

In 3 days more than 40 different batches of an EPDM and a SBR/BR compound were mixed on tangential and intermeshing mixers - all with varying mixing sequences.
Every batch was completely tested, correlated with process data and finally interpreted by MonTechs Rubber and Rheology expert team on site.

It was a pleasure for MonTech Rubber Testing Instruments to accompany the participants and support the German Rubber Society, German Institute of Rubber Technology as well as the HF Mixing Group in this competition and we are looking forward to the upcoming workshop next year.