The beginnings of the rubber age
The fact that millions and millions of products benefit from the positive properties of rubber today is thanks to the discoveries of the Maya. As early as the 3rd century AD, the indigenous people of Central America were already using rubber - or at least an original form of it. The natural origin of rubber comes from the milk of the rubber tree. A sticky, rubbery mass is obtained from the ripped bark and dried.
How was rubber used in the past?
The material was first used in the Flummi, a bouncing play ball. The Aztec ruler Montezuma is even said to have owned entire playhouses full of rubber balls! However, its practical use was soon discovered: to make fabrics water-repellent, to seal boats or to catch birds on sticky branches. Incidentally, even Columbus reported on the material in 1495 - but failed to recognise its potential.
The path to modernity
It was not until 1743 that the naturalist Condamine had the idea of taking the rubber back to Europe. During the long boat journey, however, it became solid and therefore unusable. A few decades later, the solution - or solvent - made the material mouldable even after transport. Now rubber shoes, hot air balloons and mackintoshes could also be produced in Europe. But this was far from perfect. At very cold or warm temperatures, the rubber became either brittle or sticky. This could only be solved by vulcanisation. Charles Goodyear invented this process by heating the rubber with sulphur. Now the material was odourless, more elastic and could be used in all weathers.
This is how bloody the rise of rubber is
With the mass production of automobiles at the beginning of the 20th century, the demand for car tyres also increased. Their main component? Rubber! At that time, however, the rubber tree could only be cultivated in tropical regions, particularly in Brazil and the Congo. The cultivation areas were exploited in the course of colonialism. Hard slave labour or bloody battles over plantations increased with the rise in demand. Things could not go on like this.
How rubber became plastic
In 1909, the German chemist Fritz Hofmann developed a process to produce rubber synthetically - previously from coal and lime, today from crude oil. The term "rubber" was originally used as a synonym for caoutchouc, but today rubber is a versatile material from the group of elastomers. In the modern world, rubber has become an indispensable material. There is hardly an area of technology in which the flexible material rubber would not play a role. The sometimes somewhat underestimated term "rubber" encompasses countless qualities such as NR (natural rubber), EPDM, NBR, CR (neoprene), etc. The rubber properties and compounds can be customised to the respective application. Vibraplast AG has a wide range of rubber products such as moulded rubber parts, rubber profiles, rubber seals, rubber sheets, etc. Further information can be found in our online shop www.vibraplast.ch.
