Highly Saturated Nitrile

Description

Hydrogenation of nitrile rubber removes most of the residual unsaturation in the polymer to make it far less vulnerable to attack by heat, ozone, and oxygen. In fact, due to superior oil and temperature resistance, Highly Saturated Nitrile can sometimes be substituted for more costly fluorocarbon rubber. It is frequently used in automotive air conditioning systems employing R-134a refrigerants. HNBR can be can be either peroxide or sulfur cured, depending on the degree of unsaturation achieved by the hydrogenation process, but peroxide is almost always used due to the good heat stabiIity properties of the peroxide crosslinks. It can be compounded for both low and high temperature use.

Composition

Highly Saturated Nitrile

Physical Properties*

  Excellent Good Fair Poor
Abrasion resistance      
Compression Set      
Elongation      
Flame resistance      
Gas permeability      
Low temperature flexibility      
Tear resistance      
Tensile strength      

Chemical Resistance*

  Excellent Good Fair Poor
Automatic transmission fluid      
Automotive refrigerants      
Oxygenated fuels      
Ozone      
Petroleum oils      
Sour crude oil      
Weather      

Operating Temperature

-40 to 300 °F
*Excellent, good, fair and poor are intended to serve as general guidelines only. Actual testing in the application environment is always recommended.