ENGINEERING JOURNAL CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY

Volume 25, No. 02, Month AUGUST, Year 2018, Pages 181 - 190

Development of a latex cup from natural rubber mixed parawood sawdust

Pongpun Ratchapakdee and Ekkawit Pianhanuruk

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This research describes the development of latex collecting cups produced from natural rubber latex mixing with parawood sawdust. Generally, latex collecting cups are made of ceramic or plastic that have some downsides. Ceramic cups are costly and heavy. Whereas, plastic cups are cheap and light weight but they are easily deteriorated due to heat and sunlight exposure. To approve the study, low cost and eco-friendly rubber cups were developed using field rubber latex mixing with sawdust from parawoods. The effect of size and sawdust content were investigated using 4 size ranges; 0-250, 250-500, 500-750 and 750-1000 μm and saw dust content at level of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 Parts per hundred of rubber, thus, aggregate to STR 20 rubber. Mechanical properties (tensile strength and hardness) were used to determine the suitable proportion of the mixture. It was found that the sawdust with size range of 500-750 μm and 100 Parts per hundred of rubber level was suitable for the mixture shape with maximum hardness strength of 88 shore A. Indeed, an ingredient of producing latex cup was no fragile and consistent with best abrasion resistance and 4.55 satisfactory evaluation by rubber farmers was positive. In farmers"e view, a newly developed latex cups can be used in their plantations well as they are strong, less remaining of rubber latex after collection with long shelf-life similar to that of ceramic. These newly developed eco-friendly latex cups were also self-biodegradable and can be used to replace of typical collecting cups.

Keywords

Latex cup, Natural rubber, Sawdust

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