Mass production of tires, as well as the difficult storage or elimination is a real environmental problem. Various methods for recycling tires are currently used, such as mechanical grinding, which puts vulcanized rubber, steel, and fibers apart. The rubber may be used in several industrial applications such as flooring, insulations, footwear, etc. The aim of this article focuses on finding a new application for the old used tires (GTR). Tire dust and recycled EVA thermoplastic have been mixed, and we have checked the maximum accepted values of GTR concentration that can be admitted while keeping dielectric, mechanical, and thermal properties within acceptable values, as well as initial polymer microstructure. This would allow including GTR in industrial applications of recycled EVA. The recycled tire dust which result from the industrial milling processes has been divided by sieve in three different categories according to the size of the particles (<200, 200—500, and >" xbd="654" xhg="622" ybd="1596" yhg="1560"/>500 µm). This has then been mixed with EVA in different GTR concentrations (0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, and 70%) in order to establish its conduct through electrical, mechanical, thermal, and microstructure tests, which will be held in a range of temperatures between 30°C and 120°C, and with a range of frequency between 1 × 10-2 and 3 × 106 Hz.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The mass manufacture of tires and the difficulty in storing or disposing them constitute\ud a serious environmental problem. At present, various recycling methods for tires are\ud used, such as grinding, which separates the steel and fibers from the vulcanized rubber,\ud then using the rubber in numerous industrial applications such as pavements, insulators,\ud footwear, etc. The aim of this article focuses on finding a new application for the ground\ud tire rubber (GTR). This would allow including GTR in industrial applications of recycled\ud high-density polythene (HDPE). Tire dust and HDPE thermoplastic have been mixed,\ud and the maximum accepted values of GTR concentration that can be admitted while\ud keeping dielectric, mechanical, and thermal properties within acceptable values, as well\ud as initial polymer microstructure, have been checked. In addition, the suitability of the\ud compounds for antistatic applications is studied. The recycled tire dust which results\ud from the industrial milling processes has been divided by sieve in three different categories\ud according to the size of the particles (<200, 200–500, and >500 mm). This has\ud then been mixed with HDPE in different GTR concentrations (0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%,\ud 50%, and 70%) in order to establish its conduct through electrical, mechanical, thermal,\ud and microstructure tests, which will be held in a temperature range 30–120 C, and with\ud a frequency range 1 10 2 and 3 106 Hz. The thermal tests determined the\ud enthalpies and fusion temperatures which allow for the observation of changes in crystalline and microstructure of the matrix, and finally, the fracture surfaces of the\ud compound samples have been evaluated using scanning electron microscopy.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

No abstract

The mass manufacture of tires and the difficulty for their elimination or storage constitutes a serious environmental\ud problem. At present, several methods for the recycling of tires are used, such as mechanical crushing, in which the steel\ud vulcanized rubber and the fibers are separated; this rubber is being used in numerous applications like pavements,\ud insulators, footwear, etc. This study proposes a second option for obsolete tires, demonstrating their utility as dielectrics.\ud In order to do so, ground tire rubber (GTR) has been combined with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), to obtain a\ud composite of a polymeric matrix reinforced with GTR. In order to determine the behavior of this composite material,\ud the electrical and mechanical tests are presented as well as, more briefly, microstructure and thermal analyses, undertaken\ud for the various mixtures of PVC with GTR (concentrations of 0%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 50%, and 70% GTR), and\ud three GTR particle size categories (<200 mm, 200–500 mm, and >500 mm), in a range of temperatures that varied from\ud 30 C to 130 C, and with frequencies from between 1 10 2 Hz and 3 106 Hz. The dielectric tests have allowed for an\ud analysis of dielectric constant, dielectric loss factor, dielectric modulus, etc. On the other hand, the mechanical analysis\ud has involved the Young’s modulus, tensile strength, elongation at break, and toughness. Mechanical and dielectric results\ud point out that below 20% of GTR the material features for mechanical or electrical applications are not significantly\ud altered.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Mass production of tires and their subsequent storage after use is a serious environmental problem that is tried to be solved in various ways. One of these ways is the mixture of these old used tires (ground tire rubber (GTR)) with various thermoplastic and thermostable polymers. These blends are made by modifying the pretreatment the GTR is subjected to, the degree of devulcanization, the mixing or pressing conditions, etc. Later the mixtures are analyzed structurally and mechanically, looking for possible industrial applications for them. The present work aims to obtain materials suitable for the electric industry from the mixture of polyamide with old used tires (GTR), starting from the requirement of minimum recycling costs, that is using vulcanized GTR without any prior treatment but acting on the particle sizes with a simple and inexpensive screening. A novelty of this study is the large number of compounds analyzed, and the deep analysis these have been submitted to dielectric, mechanical, thermal and microstructure analyses to get a large number of variables in each test. Compounds were categorized as the three GTR particle sizes (p < 200 mm, 200 < p < 500 mm and