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"Over
the years you have been very helpful when we needed a fast turn
around time in expediting an order, or special pricing on special
customer orders. Plus you have been very quick to respond, and
accept responsibility when there was a problem. "
Purchasing Manager, Coon Rapids, MN |
The Magic of Rubber
Rubber of one type or another touches our lives so often
it is largely unnoticed. There is probably rubber under you where
you sleep and on the nightstand next to you. It is under your
feet upon rising and over your head above the ceiling. Rubber
is in your bathroom, livingroom, and all over the kitchen. It
is most likely in every room and within most of the walls of
your home.
There is probably an even greater concentration of rubber
at your workplace. There is rubber in your monitor, in and under
your computer, and in your computer mouse. More than 200 pounds
of rubber make it possible for you to comfortably travel at high
speeds in your car, and less than half of that 200 pounds is
in the tires. All aircraft from ultra-lights to space shuttles
and ships from sailboats to nuclear submarines use rubber for
a multitude of critical operations. Take a look around you. Within
your view, at least a hundred things consist in part of rubber.
What makes this remarkable substance
so valuable?
It's so flexible. Perhaps the way rubber stretches
is a metaphor for what man has been doing with his environment,
testing the limits and creating new ones. Consider the wonder
of a rubber band, stretching to three or four times its original
size, then returning with no signs of stress or damage. The rubber
band is not only flexible, it's strong.
Generations before the vulcanizing process was accidentally
discovered in 1839 by Charles Goodyear, the natives of Brazil
slashed the bark of the rubber tree, letting the latex drip onto
leaves, where it could be molded by hand into vessels and sheets,
impermeable to rain. Rubber is not only flexible and strong,
it's leakproof.
In 1888, it was John Dunlop's desire for his son to win
a bicycle race in Belfast that caused him to invent the inflatable
tire. This was a vast improvement over the solid rubber tire.
Tires, fan belts, conveyer belts, bathtub mats, bottoms for shoes
and all manner of devices - all share a need to grip another
surface. Rubber is the natural choice because it is flexible,
strong, leakproof, and has a high coefficient
of friction.
The space shuttle's rubber tires must pass from the sub-zero
of space through the tremendous heat generated by re-entry and
landing. Rubber is used to safely contain the acid in batteries,
line corrosive-liquid tanks, and form hoses and valves that contend
with fuels and other caustic materials. In all of its uses, rubber
is expected to resist destruction. It is flexible, strong,
leakproof, has a high coefficient of friction,
and is resistant.
Some molds for microscopic computer chips are made of rubber.
Rubber forms giant sheets of waterproofing over concrete slabs
between floors of some high-rise buildings. It is formed into
toy dog bones, action figures, tubes, pucks, gloves, stoppers,
rings, balls, balloons, exercise mats and motor mounts. This
amazing stuff called rubber is flexible, strong,
leakproof, has a high coefficient of friction,
is resistant and moldable.
Sponge rubber is lightweight, soft and squeezable. Some
sponge rubber soaks up liquids, some is made "closed cell".
Rubber bowling balls are dense and hard, with differing degrees
of hardness for differing lane conditions. A superball is the
epitome of energy efficiency, bouncing almost to the height at
which it was dropped. Rubber appears in every color imaginable.
It can be bonded to metal, glass, almost any surface. All these
characteristics are controlled by varying the type of rubber,
additives, and other variables in the manufacturing process.
Rubber is flexible, strong, leakproof, has
a high coefficient of friction, is resistant, moldable
and versatile.
And that's the magic that
makes rubber so valuable!
For your amusement and enjoyment you'll find a "ridiculous
list of everyday rubber products" here.
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