Rubber compound - tough, heat resistant and useful

Rubber is an elastic substance made from the extracts of rubber trees, or, can also be manufactured from petroleum and natural gas and is then called synthetic rubber. It was first discovered in 1735 in South America and this was given the name rubber in 1770 by English chemist Joseph Priestley since he found that it could ‘rub away’ pencil marks.

The invention of vulcanised rubber by Charles Goodyear in 1839 made it a tremendous commercial success. Both natural and synthetic rubbers can be made tough by the process of vulcanisation and can be modified and improved, for special purposes, by compounding it with other materials. Coloured rubber compound is made by rubber compound mixing to meet modern industrial needs. Rubber blanks are rubber billets which are produced at the required dimensions and weight. These are on offer in colour or as black compounds.

Various colours and carbon black are mixed with rubber along with large range of synthetic and natural polymers to manufacture rubber compound. The companies engaged in the manufacture of this product conduct processing of different types of synthetic and natural rubbers to produce rubber compounds suitable to confront the most challenging performance as well as to fulfil the required environment criteria.

This is because basic rubber is of little use unless the required properties are brought in to give desired performance. Various modifications are now possible that have reinforced rubber deeply and rubber blank is one of them.

Innovative research and development has ensured that precise formulations and mixing operations are used to blend rubber compound into strip or slab form that makes it suitable for processing later. Rubber compounds can also be presented in the form of calendared sheets or rubber blanks. Again, all these forms are in coloured compounds or black compounds. The companies manufacturing these offer colour matching services and assure you that every batch so mixed is lab tested before dispatching.

The firms manufacturing rubber compounds use customer specification precisely. The tyres of bicycles, automobiles and aircraft are made basically of rubber. This is because of the resilience, elasticity and toughness of rubber compounds. Statistics show that more than half the rubber manufactured goes into making of tyres. The rest make up mechanical parts such as hoses, gaskets, belts, and consumer goods such as shoes, toys, clothing etc. Rubber blanks are manufactured using a Barwell Preformer.

Rubber blanks are manufactured in weights ranging from 2g to around 1 kg. Mixing of raw materials for rubber compounds is done by using a roll milling machine. Manufacturing firms use computer-controlled machines to process each batch through a range of heavy-duty systems of mixing, adding more chemicals and then discharging batches at required time and temperature. Control by computer ensures accuracy and precision.

The strips or slabs produced are then cooled and are then ready for further treatment. Batches are subjected to strong quality control analyses. Calendared sheets can be produced according to required specifications. Industrial rubber components are manufactured by the methods of injection moulding, extrusion or compression moulding. The processes are all guaranteed to give optimum results that keep the entire supply chain in rubber-related industry satisfied.

Rubber compound ( http://www.bdtechnicalpolymer.co.uk/rubber-compounding ) manufacturing processes may use synthetic or natural rubber. Differently configured cutting machines are used to make rubber blanks ( http://www.bdtechnicalpolymer.co.uk/blanking ).