Non-black rubber membranes

1. A roofing membrane comprising:

a non-black component that includes an olefinic rubber including units deriving from ethylene, α-olefin, and diene monomer, where the olefinic rubber includes at least 1.5 percent by weight and less than 4 percent by weight units deriving from diene monomer;

at least 20 parts by weight and less than 250 parts by weight of a silica filler per 100 parts by weight rubber;

at least 20 parts by weight and less than 90 parts by weight titanium dioxide per 100 parts by weight rubber; and

at about 30 parts by weight and less than 120 parts by weight clear oil per 100 parts by weight rubber;

wherein at least a portion of the silica filler is chemically coupled to the olefinic rubber.

2. The roofing membrane of claim 1 , wherein the roofing membrane is devoid of clay fillers.

3. The roofing membrane of claim 1 , wherein the olefinic rubber is EPDM.

4. A method for the production of a roofing membrane comprising:

mixing an olefinic rubber including units deriving from ethylene, α-olefin, and diene monomer, a silica filler, and a hindered organosilane coupling agent to form a mixture, wherein the silica filler reacts with the silane coupling agent;

adding a curative to the mixture to form an uncured compound;

calendering the uncured compound to form a sheet;

assembling the sheet into an uncured roofing membrane; and

curing the uncured roofing membrane, whereby said step of curing couples the silica filler to the olefinic rubber.

5. The roofing membrane of claim 1 , where the non-black component further includes at least 5 parts by weight and less than 90 parts by weight talc per 100 parts by weight rubber.

6. The roofing membrane of claim 5 , where the non-black component includes less than 15 parts by weight clay per 100 parts by weight rubber.

7. A method for preparing a roofing membrane, the method comprising:

i. combining an olefinic rubber including units deriving from ethylene, α-olefin, and diene monomer, at least 20 parts by weight to less than 250 parts by weight of silica per 100 parts by weight rubber, from at least 0.1 to less than 5 parts by weight of a hindered organosilane coupling agent per 100 parts by weight rubber, and a curative, to thereby produce a non-black vulcanizable composition of matter;

ii. forming the non-black vulcanizable composition of matter into an uncured non-black sheet;

iii. subjecting the uncured non-black sheet to cure conditions to thereby form a non-black membrane wherein the olefinic rubber is crosslinked and the silica is chemically linked to the olefinic rubber via the coupling agent.

8. The method of claim 7 , where said step of forming the non-black vulcanizable composition into an uncured non-black sheet includes forming a sheet having a thickness from about 5 to about 200 mils.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the step of laminating the uncured non-black sheet to an uncured black sheet.

10. The method of claim 9 , where the ratio of the thickness of the non-black sheet to the black sheet is from about 1:3 to about 1:1.

11. The method of claim 8 , where the hindered organosilane coupling agent is combined with the rubber and silica together with an inert carrier that carries the coupling agent.

12. The method of claim 11 , where the non-black vulcanizable composition further includes at least 20 parts by weight and less than 90 parts by weight of titanium dioxide, per 100 parts by weight rubber, and at least 30 parts by weight and less than 120 parts by weight clear oil per 100 parts by weight rubber.

13. The method of claim 12 , where the uncured compound has a Mooney viscosity of less than 33 and a t 5 scorch time that is greater than 8 minutes, where the Mooney viscosity and the t 5 scorch time are determined using an MDR 2000.

14. The method of claim 1 , where the roofing membrane is in the form of a sheet including a reinforcing scrim in addition to the non-black component.

15. The method of claim 14 , where the roofing membrane has a thickness of from 5 to 200 mils.

16. The method of claim 15 , where the non-black component further includes at least 5 parts by weight and less than 90 parts by weight talc per 100 parts by weight rubber and less than 15 parts by weight clay per 100 parts by weight rubber.

17. The method of claim 16 , where the clear oil has a sulfur content of less than 0.1 weight percent and an unsaturation level of less than 1 percent.

18. The method of claim 4 , wherein the coupling agent is a mercapto silane.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the silane coupling agent is a bi-functional sulfur-silane having a blocked mercapto group.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the silane coupling agent is a thiocarboxylsilane with a 50% active substance on a PE-wax carrier system.

21. The method of claim 19 , where the olefinic rubber includes at least 1.5 percent by weight and less than 4 percent by weight units deriving from diene monomer.

22. The method of claim 12 , where the olefinic rubber includes at least 1.5 percent by weight and less than 4 percent by weight units deriving from diene monomer.