:On 22 Oct 2016, DaveC wrote
(in article<0001HW.1DBC846A001D9BEA10BE433BF@news.eternal-september.org>
Alcohol dries rubber eventually hardening rollers. Thinking of printer
rollers here.
What alternative cleaner do you use on printer rollers and such?
Ill take my answer off the air. (c:
Thanks.
-=-=-=-
Ive been misunderstood from the get-go.
On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 13:22:49 -0700, DaveC <not@home.cow> wrote:
On 22 Oct 2016, DaveC wrote
(in article<0001HW.1DBC846A001D9BEA10BE433BF@news.eternal-september.org>
Alcohol dries rubber eventually hardening rollers. Thinking of printer
rollers here.
What alternative cleaner do you use on printer rollers and such?
Ill take my answer off the air. (c:
Thanks.
-=-=-=-
Ive been misunderstood from the get-go.
No, you mis-stated the problem. Read your own posting and see how you
would answer your own question. You asked for a "cleaner" and
received several suitable replies.
The rollers are fine. I dont need a restorer. I just want to keep from
accelerating their hardening over time by using a cleaner that doesnt dry
them out faster than heat and oxygen do.
You could make a fortune if you had a process for doing that.
Rubber rollers contain a well controlled percentage of some type of
oil. It's this oil that gives the rubber its flexibility which helps
prevent surface wear. As I vaguely recall and am too lazy to search
for, it's about 10-25% oil by weight. The way the oil is injected
into the rubber is with a solvent carrier. These are usually noxious
solvents such as toluene and xylene. The oil can be almost anything
that doesn't attack the rubber or interfere with the various rubber
additives. Here's a pitch line for soy oil in rubber:
http://soynewuses.org/wp-content/uploads/44422_MOS_Rubber.pdf
"Tests have shown that using soy oil in tires can potentially
increase tread life by 10 percent while reducing the use
of petroleum-based oil."
When rubber "dries out", it really means that it has lost most of the
surface oil mixed in with the rubber. Smearing some oil on the
surface won't replace the oil. What does work is a mix of oil and a
carrier (tolune or xylene) which expands the rubber sufficiently for
the oil to be absorbed. How much is absorbed will determine the life
of the rubber part. Too much and it might fall apart. Too little and
you're left with a rock hard surface. Using pure solvent, with no
oil, is a guaranteed failure because it expands the rubber, but does
not replace any of the missing oil.
Note that this has nothing to do with the vulcanization failure in
rubber, where the rubber de-vulcanizes, reverts back to "natural"
rubber, and turns into a sticky, gooey, tar-like mess.
Good luck.