Liaoning Black Cat breaks ground on rubber masterbatch production plant

Liaoning, China – Liaoning Black Cat Composite New Material Technology Co., Ltd., held a groundbreaking ceremony on March 28 for its 160,000 metric tons per year rubber masterbatch production project. Local government leaders, Black Cat Group leaders and academician Liqun Zhang and her team from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) attended the ceremony. Liaoning Black Cat Composite New Material Technology Co., Ltd., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jiangxi Black Cat Carbon Black Company. This project is the result of a long cooperation between Black Cat and Liqun Zhang of BUCT and her team. It is expected to be put into production in December 2024. Xiaohui Wu was the primary member of this project. At the groundbreaking, he spoke as a representative of the Liqun Zhang team. He said since 2018, Black Cat Company and BUCT cooperated in the process design, formula development and new equipment design for the rubber masterbatch. After six years of research, this project achieved a technological breakthrough. Now, the rubber masterbatch has been proven to mix easily, offering energy savings of 30% and reducing carbon in the tire manufacturing process. With the wet mixing technology of Black Cat’s carbon black, it successfully improves the dispersion and comprehensive performance of carbon black in natural rubber, said to be a major breakthrough in wet mixing technology. It reduces the hysteresis loss and tire rolling resistance, and enhances tire wear resistance. This rubber masterbatch is expected to be used in the tire industry, improving the performance of tires, while reducing production energy consumption. Up to now, it has been tested for downstream customers, such as truck bus and radial (TBR) tire, off the road (OTR) tire, aviation tire and rubber products manufacturers, etc. When the new project begins production, it will be promoted within the rubber industry.