Devulcanization of natural rubber crumb in a single screw extruder offers the
potential for continuous processing of recycled rubber products. In this work the effect
of extrusion processing conditions on the degree of rubber reversion was investigated. In
particular, the effect of screw speed and temperature on the degradation behavior was
studied. With increasing screw speed, the rubber receives more mechanical shear stress,
but are subjected to less thermal energy as a result of the reduced residence time in the
extruder.