Bus bellow made of Levapren®
No longer a black art
State-of-the-art articulated buses bear little resemblance to the unsophisticated vehicles of days gone by. Attractive colors, large windows and comfortable seats make journeys on public transport today a lot more pleasant than a few years ago.
The last remaining dirty old buses can now also finally be enhanced using translucent folding bellows made of the extremely robust and weather-resistant EVM rubber Levapren® from LANXESS. This elastic material keeps out dirt and dust and allows sunlight to shine through.
So why was this not possible before? The answer is simple: Because the material linking the two parts of an articulated bus needs to satisfy a whole range of high-performance requirements. The bellows are constantly moving and twisting in use - including at low operational temperatures. This means that they are subject to significant mechanical loads and must be able to stand up to frequent contact with road salt and cleaning materials, not to mention exposure to UV light which would quickly destroy any unprotected rubber.
Levapren® is one of the very few materials which can tolerate this sort of treatment. This rubber is particularly strong even with a comparatively low content of the filler silica. Moreover, Levapren® not only has a high tensile strength, but is also flexible and resistant to UV light at low temperatures without the need for black fillers. Levapren® signals an end to the "black art"!
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