When it comes to the development of aircraft rubber sealing materials, we have to say the development of the aircraft industry. Due to the rapid development of China’s economy, higher requirements are put forward for aircraft materials both in life and military. For civil aircraft, with the continuous improvement of its safety and transportation efficiency, its utilization rate is higher and higher. Accordingly, the increase in passenger volume puts forward higher requirements for aircraft quality, including service performance, service life, safety, and so on. Its function is mainly to be used as a sealing material. It can be used for as much as several hundred kilograms or several tons on the aircraft. For the aircraft and spacecraft that have no place to bear force in the air, sealing is a very key factor, which is related to the safety of the aircraft itself. For example, the US Challenger spacecraft crashed because of lax sealing. In addition to sealing, it is also used as a transmission medium, fireproof material, vibration reduction, and other functions.
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Classification of aircraft rubber sealing materials
There are many kinds of rubber materials used in aviation, so there are many aspects in its classification and selection. For example, if it is carried out according to the sealing method, it can be divided into compression and inflation. For the compressed rubber sealing material, the sealing performance is mainly maintained by the point on the rubber and the elastic force of the rubber itself. As a commonly used material in aviation, the biggest feature of compressed rubber is that it is independent of other mechanisms of the aircraft. However , compared with the air-filled rubber material, it will gradually age after many applications and must be replaced to avoid leakage accidents. The inflatable rubber does not need to consider this problem, because its sealing principle is to use the filling of gas to make the material fully in contact with the aircraft. With long-term use, it can maintain the sealing by continuously filling it with gas, but it also has high requirements for the a irtightness of the overall structure, and any small problem will evolve into a major accident.
According to the types of materials, rubber can be divided into pure rubber type and composite type. The latter has a wider range of applications because of its superior performance. If it is divided according to the vulcanization temperature during the production of rubber materials, it can be divided into high temperature and room temperature. Under these two types, it can be divided into many different types of materials according to the different chemical substances.
2 Development of aircraft rubber sealing materials at home and abroad
Because the quality of foreign rubber is better than that of domestic rubber in terms of starting time and rubber quality, let’s first analyze the development process of rubber materials abroad.
2.1 Development of rubber abroad
The prosperity of the rubber industry began in the early 20th century, and then began its era of rapid development, especially with the progress of World War I and World War II. However, during World War I, the performance, quality, and quantity of rubber used on aircraft were significantly not too high, but during and after World War II, with the improvement of aircraft performance, the requirements for rubber materials increased, The representative of rubber in this era is synthetic rubber such as neoprene, and the development process of rubber industry at this time is for the military field. Until the later stages of development, the development of civil aircraft gradually rose to a new level, and rubber also developed. Fluororubber and fluorosilicone rubber products are the representative types of several stages in the development process of rubber, which greatly improves the performance of rubber. And for the development of foreign rubber, is developing in the direction of high performance and specialization. For example, the use of rubber is divided into oil resistance, exposure, sealing, vibration reduction, heat insulation, and fire prevention.
Main problems of rubber sealing materials in China
Although China has also strengthened the research and development of rubber sealing materials with the rapid development of the economy, in the final analysis, there is a lack of research means, capital, and time, resulting in low rubber performance on many occasions requiring a large number of rubber applications in China, such as materials used in China’s aviation industry. Although they are at the forefront of research in China, they are compared with the West with the highest rubber development technology, It can only be equivalent to its development level from the 1970s to the 1980s, and the result is the poor performance and stability of rubber, which makes the application of rubber full of uncertainty. In addition to the sealing materials, the rubber used for vibration damping and fastening will also have various problems in use , resulting in pipeline fracture from time to time, and other vibration-damping equipment has to be installed. Moreover, as far as the sealing function o f rubber is concerned, it also needs to make continuous progress with the development of the rubber industry, to develop new structures and seals. However, China’s research in this field is insufficient, which not only means that there are few new component mechanisms, but also in-depth research. Such research is not very helpful for the development of China’s rubber industry.
