Scope of the project was quality assurance in the rubber mixing room. The Mini Derucom project partners were chosen to cover a broad range of products in the technical rubber goods industry. Raw materials suppliers, rubber processors, university research institutes as well as the end user Volkswagen represented the process chain. The results of the Mini Derucom project clearly demonstrate the factors with an influence on compound and end article properties coming from the mixing room. Raw material quality parameter variations were considered as well as weighing tolerances, raw material transport processes and mixing parameters. Compound properties were judged with standard testing equipment as presently applied in rubber mixing rooms and more sophisticated methods. The aim was to ascertain the best forecasting method for end article properties on the basis of the parameter variations applied. It turned out that the corresponding ability of the standard methods is quite low in comparison to the signals provided by the mixer. Thus a quality assurance concept for the rubber mixing room should consist of a
strategy using the mixer as a sensor. A new quality assurance concept was then set up on this basis. The book contains 144 pages with 70 figures and 22 tables. It costs Euro 149,90.