Blends of natural and synthetic rubbers

Claim 1

A blend of natural and synthetic rubbers having processability and improved green strength and tack, said blend comprising: from about 5 to 55 parts by weight of natural rubber; from about 30 to 50 parts by weight of a conjugated diene-containing synthetic rubber having an average molecular weight of from about 50×10 3 to about 800×10 3 ; and from about 5 to 50 parts by weight of a substituted acrylamide-containing synthetic rubber having an average molecular weight of from about 50×10 3 to about 500×10 3 ; wherein said conjugated diene-containing synthetic rubber is selected from the group consisting of conjugated diene homopolymers and copolymers, prepared from conjugated diene monomers having from four to about 12 carbon atoms, with monomers containing a vinyl group selected from the group consisting of monovinyl aromatic compounds having from eight to about 20 carbon atoms and acrylic compounds having from three to about five carbon atoms including halogen-substituted compounds; said substituted acrylamide-containing synthetic rubber comprises from about 60 to 99.7 percent by weight of said conjugated diene monomer; from about 0 to 39.7 percent by weight of said monomer containing a vinyl group and copolymerizable with said conjugated diene monomer; and from about 0.3 to 10 percent by weight of an N-(alkoxymethyl)acrylamide monomer having the formula ##STR2## wherein R is a straight or branched alkyl chain having from 1 to about 20 carbon atoms, the weight of each said monomer component being based upon the total weight of said substituted acrylamide-containing synthetic rubber; and wherein said blend is based upon the following relationship: A+B≧C C+A≧B wherein A is equal to the parts by weight of said natural rubber, B is equal to the parts by weight of said conjugated diene-containing synthetic rubber, and C is equal to the parts by weight of said substituted acrylamide-containing synthetic rubber.