Rubber Raw Materials and Active Zinc Oxide, Metal Soaps

MELOS AŞ is a raw material manufacturer company that is owned by a family which has been operating in various industries for 55 years in Turkey. We have been manufacturing raw materials for rubber and plastic industries since 2006. With our 40,000 m2 open field and 9,500 m2 closed space factories located in the province of Sakarya and 3,000 m2 closed space warehouse and sales office located in Istanbul, we have been servicing our valuable customers in both domestic and foreign markets.

We are producing the following raw materials for RUBBER INDUSTRY:

• ACTIVE ZINC OXIDE
• METAL SOAPS (Zinc Stearate & Calcium Stearate)
• DEHUMIDIFIER
• ZINC BORATE
• GRANULAR ACCELERATORS

The Rubber Industry represents the largest market for Active Zinc Oxide. Active Zinc Oxide is a widely used raw material in the rubber industry due to the excellent properties it shows as an activator for vulcanization of rubber. Vulcanization is a chemical process for converting natural rubber into a more durable material. Therefore, Active Zinc Oxide adds strength to rubber compounds and improves their resistance against heat/abrasion and helps guard against ultraviolet degradation. The huge importance of Active Zinc Oxide as a raw material to the rubber industry is due to so many optical, physical and chemical properties it has.

We produce all of our Zinc Oxide products with the precipitation method (also called the wet chemical process). Briefly we start with high purity zinc ingots and through several chemical reactions and a final calcination we get a very high surface area (up to 70m2/g), smaller particle size and very low impurities. Active Zinc Oxide dissolves as solid particles inside rubber compounds. These particles can only react with surrounding chemicals by its surface. Therefore, reaction capability of zinc oxide is determined not by its mass, but its molecular surface area. Surface area of MELOS Active Zinc Oxide types may go up to 70 m2/gr value, which enables it to react much faster and more efficiently.

We can produce different Active ZnO types with different surface areas with our multi-step chemical processes. As mentioned above our grades have much higher surface area than regular (french process) zinc oxide and in the rubber compound it reacts very intensively and effectively. The intense reaction capability of Melos Active Zinc Oxide gives the final product the best qualities and can really shorten the vulcanization times. Nature of MELOS Active Zinc Oxide molecules are circular. Circular particles easily flow on top of each other and they do not bind to each other, allowing them to disperse much more effectively in the compound. With zinc oxide particles that are produced with traditional methods, particles are non circular, in a needle-like nature and their dispersion capabilities are much weaker.

It is advised that when using our Active Zinc Oxide types the Active Zinc Oxide content in the compound must be decreased up to %50 when compared to regular Zinc Oxide. Less Zinc Oxide means less burden on the environment and MELOS finds great pride in contributing to a cleaner planet. MELOS also offer types that can be used 1:1 instead of french prosess zinc oxide. MELOS officials will be happy to assist and direct our customers to the best products depending on the product they produce and the properties they seek with their end-product.