Natural rubber latex: determination and interpretation of flow curves

As consumers become more demanding, the importance grows of guaranteeing the quality of products. The employment of reliable testing techniques that assure the origin and characteristics of the inputs used by industry is a key factor in this respect. In the rubber processing industry, the most commonly used characterization tests include determination of the total solids and dry rubber content, mechanical stability, odor, color and presence of volatile compounds, among others. For the most part, these tests are sufficient for the latex transformation industry. However, in situations where there is a need to know the behavior of latex in reaction to the mechanical forces of machines (mixers, pumps, etc.), other tests must be used. Rheological tests to determine viscoelastic data by means of plotting flow curves combined with the application of theoretical models can provide important details for characterization of different types of latex. This article presents the protocol employed by the Rheology and Image Laboratory of Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) for the rheological study of Brazilian latex. The samples analyzed came from the state of Sao Paulo.