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July 9

Puncture repair patches - what's the orange stuff?

Puncture repair patches typically have a black part and an orange part but I've also seen patches that are just a big piece of buytl rubber which you can cut pieces off and they don't have the orange stuff. So what is the orange stuff? --129.215.47.59 (talk) 14:12, 9 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The orange layer is cold-vulcanizing uncured rubber.[1] When you put it on a clean neoprene surface with cold-vulcanizing fluid (commonly -- and incorrectly - called "adhesive") it melts into the surface The black layer is neoprene, which is stronger than cold-vulcanized rubber and more resistant to blowouts. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:29, 9 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The black part is butyl rubber (not neoprene) and is filled with carbon. That makes it strong and stiffer, but also less elastic. If you join two pieces of this together with a glue, then it's an inelastic joint which stresses the glue layer and causes an early failure. The softer unvulcanised rubber acts as a mechanical interface and shoc absorber between the two. As it's then a sandwich between them, it doesn't need to be especially strong.

Butyl to butyl joints are fine when made carefully in the workshop (and they're glued right to the edges) - but for a quick repair on the road, the orange layers will do a better job. Andy Dingley (talk) 16:35, 9 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the correction. --Guy Macon (talk) 14:50, 10 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]