Viscosity and cure time of a filled rubber compound having an accelerated sulfur cure system are affected by types and contents of the rubber and the filler as well as of the curatives. Bound rubber content is used as level of the reinforcement. Influence of bound rubber on viscosity and cure time of a rubber compound was studied using highly filled styrene-butadiene rubber compounds with carbon black having different structures. The bound rubber content increases with increase of the carbon black content and also increases as the carbon black structure is developed. The Mooney viscosity increases linearly with increase of the bound rubber content irrespective of the carbon black structure when the primary particle size of carbon black is nearly the same. The Mooney scorch time decreases linearly with increase of the bound rubber content irrespective of the carbon black structure. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.