Manufacture and Characterization of Polymeric Tile Made From Natural Rubber Latex, Sand and Asphalt with Polypropylene as Adhesive

Abstract

Research has been undertaken for the manufacture of polymeric tiles made with natural rubber latex mix, Polypropylene, Asphalt, Sand and Epoxy. A study was conducted to determine the best mixture of natural rubber sand and latex as an independent variable with a variation of 30: 20, 32,5: 17,5, 35: 15, 37,5: 12,5, 40: 10, 42,5: 7,5, 45: 5, 47,5: 2,5 composition (all in % by weight). Then fixed variables are asphalt 5 g, Polypropylene 30 g and epoxy 15 g.Natural rubber latex is extracted and then mixed with asphalt, sand, polypropylene and then pressed with compressor for 20 minutes at ?200?^0 C with 38 atm( 38,5 x ?10?^5 Pa). The properties of polymeric tile tested were physical properties including water absoption and porosity, mechanical properties including impact test and flexure strength test. The result showed that the optimum mixture was a mixture of sand and natural rubber latex with addition of 5 g of asphalt as binder, and epoxy 14% and 1% catalyst.