Patent ID: 7201944

Claim:
A method for adhering steel reinforcement to rubber, comprising: a) providing a blended composition from ingredients that comprise (1) at least one rubber, (2) carbon black particulate filler selected from one or more of furnace blacks, channel blacks, lamp blacks, and acetylene blacks, (3) a sulfur curing agent, and (4) a silane component comprising at least one of an aminosilane and a mercaptosilane, said composition being free of metallic salts and complexes; b) forming a layer of rubber stock from said blended composition; and c) incorporating steel reinforcement into said rubber stock to provide a reinforced composite, said steel reinforcement having at least some of its surface area being untreated, wherein said silane component acts to adhere said at least one rubber to said steel reinforcement in at least the untreated surface area.