Engineering Elastomers Used in Gas Mask Production

In the present research work, a detailed comparative study was accomplished on more recently developed gas mask products to evaluate several different types of elastomers, as major design variants in required rubber compounding. Through a systematic definition of evaluation criteria (including eight technical criteria, two economical and three satisfactory criteria), radar diagrams and evaluation matrix were formed. Meanwhile, based on the manufacturer's knowledge and experience, the importance of the technical, economical and satisfactory criteria were found as 60, 30 and 10%, respectively. It was found that all of the investigated elastomers have the same technical potential for gas mask production. However, taking into account the techno-economical considerations simultaneously for gas mask production in Iran, results revealed that the desirability of these elastomers follows the trend of polyisoprene (NR)> polychloroprene (CR)> ethylene-propylene-diene (EPDM)> butyl rubbers (IIR)> silicone rubber (Q)> nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR).