Methods for evaluating and manufacturing rubber and method for manufacturing joint seal for inkjet printer

A method for evaluating rubber, comprising:

• measuring an amount of energy shift of a peak of a constituent element of chlorinated butyl rubber by photoelectron spectroscopy;
• determining a relationship between the amount of energy shift of the peak and a degree of crosslinking of the rubber as a linear functional relationship;
• and
• evaluating the degree of crosslinking of the chlorinated butyl rubber based on the linear functional relationship with the amount of energy shift.

A method for manufacturing rubber, comprising:

• molding the rubber by heat crosslinking;
• measuring an amount of energy shift of a peak of a constituent element of the molded rubber;
• determining a relationship between the amount of energy shift of the peak and a degree of crosslinking of the rubber as a linear functional relationship;
• calculating the degree of crosslinking of the molded rubber based on the linear functional relationship with the amount of energy shift;
• and
• feeding back the calculated degree of crosslinking to the molding step.

A method for manufacturing an inkjet-printer joint seal, comprising:

• molding chlorinated butyl rubber by heat crosslinking to form the joint seal;
• measuring an amount of energy shift of a peak of Cl(2P3/2) of the molded chlorinated butyl rubber by a photoelectron spectrometer;
• determining a relationship between the amount of energy shift of the peak and a degree of crosslinking of the rubber as a linear functional relationship;
• evaluating the degree of crosslinking of the chlorinated butyl rubber based on a linear functional relationship with the amount of energy shift;
• feeding back the evaluated degree of crosslinking to the molding step;
• and
• adjusting heat molding conditions so that the amount of energy shift of the peak of Cl(2P3/2) is within a range of 0.6 eV±0.3 eV.