Patent Application
20170261134
The present invention relates to a rubber tube, and a method of producing the rubber tube. Particularly, the invention relates to a rubber tube formed of a fluororubber.
In general, fluororubbers are highly adhesive. Therefore, a tube formed of such a fluororubber is liable to have a lower liquid feed capability due to the adhesiveness of the fluororubber in an application such as of a tube pump in which the tube is repeatedly collapsed during use. The lower liquid feed capability means a lower liquid feed rate or lower liquid feed responsiveness which is attributable to the fact that a longer period of time is required for restoration of the tube from a collapsed state to its original shape.
The fluororubbers are used in a wide variety of applications because of their higher heat resistance and higher chemical resistance, but their higher adhesiveness is disadvantageous. If there is a need for quickly feeding a minute amount of fluid in the application of the tube pump, poorer restorability of the tube attributable to the adhesiveness is problematic.
To cope with this problem, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 propose tubes each including a PTFE resin layer provided on an inner side thereof for reduction of the adhesiveness.
[PATENT DOCUMENT 1] JP2002-502735A
[PATENT DOCUMENT 2] JP2008-30471A
The tubes proposed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 each have a multi-layer structure, so that a tube production process is problematically complicated. Further, separation of layers is also problematic.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention is directed to the reduction of the adhesiveness of the rubber tube. Particularly, it is an object of the present invention to reduce the adhesiveness of the fluororubber without changing the polymer type and the formulation of the fluororubber.
According to an inventive aspect, there is provided a rubber tube having an inner surface roughened so that the ratio (R/D) of an inner surface roughness R of the tube to the inner diameter D of the tube is not less than a predetermined level.
The roughened inner surface preferably includes an inner surface portion of a collapsible part of the tube.
The inner surface roughness R may include, for example, surface roughness parameters Rz (maximum height), Rp (maximum peak height), Rv (maximum valley depth), Ra (arithmetic average roughness) and Rq (root mean square height) specified in JIS B0601.
In the present invention, a material for the rubber tube is preferably a fluororubber, particularly preferably FKM.
According to another inventive aspect, there is provided a method of producing a rubber tube, the method including the steps of: preparing an outer mold defining an outer shape of the tube and an inner core rod defining an inner surface geometry of the tube; placing the inner core rod along a center line of the outer mold; and molding the rubber tube by the outer mold and the inner core rod; wherein the inner core rod has a surface portion roughened to a predetermined roughness.
The surface portion of the inner core rod is preferably roughened, for example, by a shot blast process, and a blasting material for the shot blast process is preferably glass beads.
In the present invention, the surface roughness parameters Rz (maximum height), Rp (maximum peak height), Rv (maximum valley depth), Ra (arithmetic average roughness) and Rq (root mean square height) specified in JIS B0601 are used as the surface roughness parameters but, instead, surface roughness parameters Sz (maximum height), Sp (maximum peak height), Sv (maximum valley depth), Sa (arithmetic average roughness) and Sq (root mean square height) specified in ISO 25178 may be used.
According to the present invention, the adhesiveness of the rubber tube, particularly the adhesiveness of the fluororubber tube, can be reduced. Therefore, where the rubber tube is used for a tube pump, the performance of the tube pump can be improved. Further, the inventive rubber tube can be used as a pinch valve tube.
FIGURE is a schematic perspective view illustrating a mold for molding a rubber tube according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described specifically.
FIGURE is a schematic perspective view illustrating a mold 10 for molding a rubber tube according to one embodiment of the present invention.
The mold 10 includes a lower mold 11, an upper mold 12 and an inner core rod 13 as its constituents. The mold 10 is a mold for molding a rubber tube having an inner diameter of 1 mm and an outer diameter of 2 mm. The surface (peripheral surface) of the inner core rod 13 is to be in contact with an inner surface of the molded rubber tube to define the inner surface geometry of the molded rubber tube.
The inner core rod 13 is a metal rod having a diameter of 1 mm. The surface of the inner core rod 13 is mirror-polished, and then a surface portion 13f of the inner core rod excluding end portions is properly roughened, for example, by a shot blast process.
A metal blasting material, a ceramic blasting material, a resin blasting material or a glass blasting material may be used for the shot blast process. The glass blasting material is particularly preferred because the surface of the inner core rod 13 is not contaminated.
The surface end portions 13e of the inner core rod 13 correspond to end portions of the molded rubber tube, and are not necessarily required to be shot-blasted. More specifically, the surface end portions (each having a width of about 5 mm) of the inner core rod 13 which are to be in contact with inner surface end portions of the molded rubber tube are not shot-blasted, but remain as mirror-polished surface portions 13e.
The rubber tube is molded from a fluororubber in the mold 10 including the inner core rod 13, whereby the rubber tube is produced with at least a middle portion of the inner surface thereof roughened.
Similarly, inner surfaces of the upper mold 12 and the lower mold 11 which are to be in contact with the outer surface of the tube may be roughened as required.
Inner core rods 13 having different surface roughnesses for molds 10 were each prepared by shot-blasting a surface portion 13f of the inner core rod 13 of the mold 10 corresponding to an inner surface of a tube.
A fluororubber composition was prepared by kneading a vulcanizing agent, carbon, calcium hydroxide and a magnesium salt in predetermined proportions together with Du Pont's fluororubber Viton A700. Then, the fluororubber composition was press-molded at 177° C. in the molds 10, and further secondarily vulcanized at 232° C. at 24 hours. Thus, intended fluororubber tubes each having an inner diameter of 1 mm and an outer diameter of 2 mm were produced.
The surface roughnesses (Rp, Rv, Rz, Ra, Rq) of the inner surface of a collapsible part of each of the tubes (each having an inner diameter of 1 mm and an outer diameter of 2 mm) produced by using the inner core rods 13 having different surface roughnesses in Comparative Examples and Examples, and the ratios of the respective surface roughnesses (Rp, Rv, Rz, Ra, Rq) to the inner diameter D are shown below.
The fluororubber tubes were each attached to a pinch valve driven at 24 V by a solenoid and, with the valve closed (with the tube collapsed), an air pressure of 100 kPa was applied to the tube from an inlet.
The restoration response time is defined as a time period elapsed from a time point (0 second) at which the solenoid is energized to electrically open the valve to a time point at which a pressure gage provided at an outlet of the valve detects a predetermined pressure level.
If a longer period of time is required for the restoration of the tube to an open state from a collapsed state due to the adhesiveness of the tube, the restoration response time is longer.
It is noted that the surface roughnesses of the inner surface of each of the tubes were determined by longitudinally cutting the tube into halves and observing the inner surface of the tube by means of a Keyence's laser microscope VK-X100.
The results for Comparative Examples and Examples are collectively shown in Table 1.
As apparent from the results shown in Table 1, the ratio (Rz/D) of the maximum height Rz of at least the part of the tube inner surface to the tube inner diameter D is preferably not less than 0.038, and the ratio (Rp/D) of the maximum peak height Rp of at least the part of the tube inner surface to the tube inner diameter D is preferably not less than 0.019. The ratio (Rv/D) of the maximum valley depth Rv of at least the part of the tube inner surface to the tube inner diameter D is preferably not less than 0.019, and the ratio (Ra/D) of the arithmetic average roughness Ra of at least the part of the tube inner surface to the tube inner diameter D is preferably not less than 0.0036. Further, the ratio (Rq/D) of the root mean square height Rq of at least the part of the tube inner surface to the tube inner diameter D is preferably not less than 0.0046.
This application corresponds to Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-050032 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Mar. 14, 2016, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-050032 | Mar 2016 | JP | national |
