chemicals needed to make tyre softener

[racehead]

Hello all can any body tell me what goes into making a good tyre softener.
It is for a off road large scale 2 wheel drive model car
that i race

 

[tom1953]

racehead, take a look at a previous discussion on this subject, under the topic "Chemical to softer rubber?":

http://eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=215587&page=1

tom

 

[racehead]

so reading all of the thread the only real chem that will attack rubber to soften it is this Methylnaphthalene i have looked this chem up does any body now if it is dear to buy in the uk ???
thanks pete

 

[kartd86]

Racehead.....We race karts here in the Southeast United States and have to soften tires sometime. We race on dirt tracks that pack in like asphalt most of the time. On that type of track we really don't need to soften much, adding grip to the tire is what we are after most of the time.

I don't know if anything we use would work for the remote controlled cars you race...? Methylnaphthalene is some real bad stuff and we don't use it no more than we have to...We buy it from kart vendors that are at the tracks we race at....There are prolly 50 other mixes/chemicals that are sold to both soften and add grip....Over here we call it prepping or working tires.

Good luck and check out the links I posted in the thread for more info and a vender that maybe able to help you out.

Brian

 

[Compositepro]

NMP is a solvent that would probably work. All these softeners will weaken and eventually destroy a tire. But it takes time to penetrate the rubber. You do not want to get them near the tire cords. NMP is relatively environmentally friendly. It is an ingredient is some paint strippers. Heat will greatly accelerate the absorption of any softener (solvent, plasticizer, same thing) into rubber.

NMP = N-methylpyrolidone, boiling point 400F

 

[racehead]

thanks guys ill have alook around see if i can get hold of some of this nmp

 

[kartd86]

What is the approx. cost per gallon of NMP....? I have had no luck finding it yet.

I have used a plasticizer I found before as prep...It worked well but was not cheap, however it had no voc's which was a characteristic I was looking for. Much safer than the other stuff on the market, for kart tires anyway.

NMP looks promising...Thank you for the tip.

Brian

 

[racehead]

hello i spoke to a guy i use for my chems and he is going to find out how much it will be as soon as i find out ill post on here ok
latters pete

 

[Compositepro]

I suggest you try a paint stripper that contains NMP. NMP is an industrial solvent. The consumer application is paint stripper.

 

[kartd86]

We loaned a set of old tires out tonight that I worked with a paint striper in a spray can that contained 60-75% NMP....Cost was under 10 bucks....They worked pretty well. Dropped duro reading from 60 to about 42 and I still have a little in the can....For a remote model car I would think a can would last a very long time....BTW the other 25-40% is d-limone which adds a ton of grip to the tires we run.

Brian

 

[racehead]

hi brian
thanks for the post what is d-limone ???

 

[kartd86]

d-limone is an orange based cleaner...Quest is the name brand here in the States that I use....It may give you the grip you are looking for....It won't soften much at all...Atleast on a kart tire....Not sure with the tires you use.

Brian