Deproteinized Natural Rubber Latex Slow-recovery Foam Intended for Shoe Insoles Application

R. Roslim¹ , K.L. Mok² , M.R. Fatimah Rubaizah³ , K. Shamsul⁴ , K.S. Tan⁵

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.7 , Issue.3 , pp.1-9, Sep-2020

Online published on Sep 30, 2020

Copyright © R. Roslim, K.L. Mok, M.R. Fatimah Rubaizah, K. Shamsul, K.S. Tan . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Currently, there is a huge demand for pressure-relief and shock absorbing shoe insoles made from natural-based material to substitute the conventional synthetic materials. Therefore, this study developed a novel slow-recovery foam made from deproteinised natural rubber latex. In this paper, the deproteinised natural rubber latex slow-recovery foam was fabricated at three density levels and their “slow-recovery” characteristic was observed. It is of note that the foam samples are able to retain an imprint for approximately 4-5 seconds when pressed. A modern in-shoe pressure mapping system was used to confirm the ability of the insoles to lower peak pressure value by providing total larger contact area as compared to the conventional insoles that made from standard natural rubber latex foam. The pressure relief performance was also comparable to the commercially available synthetic-based slow-recovery insoles. The as-prepared foam has higher energy absorption, evidenced from a simple bouncing test using a silica ball. The height the silica ball bounced after dropping from a fixed height was measured and the results indicate the impact absorbing ability of various foam samples. The impact absorbing property was further confirmed through a static and dynamic damping study whereas, energy absorption capability (area under hysteresis curve) of deproteinised natural rubber latex slow-recovery foam was higher than other foam materials.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Slow-Recovery Foam, Deproteinised Natural Rubber Latex, Pressure-Relief, Shock Absorption, Shoe Insoles

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