30/07/11.
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No one is ignorant of rubber and rubber products. Rubber has, in fact, become an indispensable part of everyone's life. So, lets know about the different types of rubber used for making industrial rubber goods as well as consumer and daily use products.
What is Rubber?
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| Hình minh họa: Technical rubber products |
Technically speaking, rubber is a natural polymer of Isoprene (usually cis-1,4-polyisoprene). It is hydrocarbon polymer occurring as milky latex in the sap of various plants and can also be made synthetically. A small percentage (about 5%) of other materials like proteins, fatty acids, resins and inorganic materials (salts) are also present in natural rubber. Rubber, as mentioned earlier too, can also be made artificially or synthetically. The type of rubber which is produced artificially is called synthetic rubber.
In simple terms, rubber can be defined as a sticky, elastic solid which is produced from a milky liquid known as latex obtained from various types of rubber trees.
Different Types of Rubber
There are basically two broad categories into which the rubber types can be placed. These are- Natural Rubber and Synthetic Rubber. Sometimes vulcanized rubber is also taken to be a type of rubber. Lets know about all these types of rubber.
Natural Rubber
The elastic material which is obtained from the latex sap of trees is called natural rubber. Natural rubber can be vulcanized and finished into a various types of rubber products. Various types of tropical and sub-tropical trees in the regions of Amazon, South East Asia and Africa produce the milky fluid latex that are in the form of latex tubes. The rubber molecules present in these latex tubes are made up of 5 carbon and 8 hydrogen atoms. A large number of these rubber molecules are joined with each other to form long, chain-like structure. This chain of rubber molecules is called polymers that gives rubber its property of elasticity.
Synthetic Rubber
Any kind of artificial elastomer (a polymer) is called synthetic rubber. An elastomer can be defined as a material having the property of elasticity. Thus, the type of rubber made from chemicals to act as the substitute for natural rubber is the synthetic rubber. There are various types of polymers used for making synthetic rubber types. Due to this, different types of synthetic rubbers have different properties that are tailored for specific needs of rubber products industries. To have an idea about these different synthetic rubbers, read about the Types of Synthetic Rubber
Vulcanized Rubber
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| Hình minh họa: Ron cao su kỹ thuật |
Vulcanized rubber, though made from natural rubber, is sometimes taken to be a separate kind of rubber. Natural rubber, in its original form, is not suitable for industrial or commercial purposes. In fact, natural rubber has many such properties that decreases its usability as commercial rubber type. For example, it has too much water absorption capacity, low tensile strength, very low abrasion resistance and it is easily affected by organic reagents too. Therefore, the process of vulcanization is used to improve the properties of natural rubber and to convert it into a useful industrial rubber type. Vulcanization, thus, is the chemical process used for converting rubber or related polymers into more durable materials by adding sulfur or equivalent curatives. Vulcanized type of rubber material is less sticky and has superior mechanical properties than natural rubber. The hardness of vulcanized rubber depends upon the amount of sulpher used during the process and the degree of this hardness determines as to which industry could use the vulcanized rubber for making various products. For example, if 5% of sulphur is used during vulcanization, it will produce tyre rubber. Ebonite is made by adding 20 to 25% sulphur and battery case rubber is made by adding 30% of Sulphur during vulcanization. Other products made from hard vulcanized rubber include bowling balls and saxophone mouth pieces etc. Less harder vulcanized rubber is used for making various household and industrial rubber products like shoe soles, hoses etc.
