Abstract
IN an article entitled “Synthetic Rubber” appearing in the Engineer of September 13, Mr. A. E. Williams reviews the progress made with the synthetic rubber called neoprene, which was first developed in the United States about seven years ago by the Du Pont Company and is now manufactured by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. The starting point for neoprene is calcium carbide; its properties can be varied by incorporating different substances in various proportions. Generally speaking, the initial cost of synthetic rubber is higher than that of natural rubber, but owing to its resistance to temperatures above 140° F. and to acids and oils, it proves much cheaper in the long run. Exhaustive tests have been made to show its resistance to oil, and in one of these, whereas the tensile strength of natural rubber fell to 25 per cent of its original value, the strength of neoprene was reduced only to 93 per cent. It has many uses, among which Mr. Williams mentions those for driving belts, the bonding of metals, inking rollers for printing machines, hoses for petrol and oil, the protection of insulated electric cables, seals for refrigerating apparatus and the manufacture of flexible ebonite, a substance finding many different applications in industry.
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Applications of Synthetic Rubber. Nature 146, 487 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146487c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146487c0