History and Facts of vulcanization of rubber

The process of elastomer healing is vulcanization.

Natural rubber with sulfur or other curative agents such as peroxide and metal oxides is treated to form links between sections of a polymer chain to produce a rubberized material with great rigidity and durability.

When you hear the word "rubber," what comes to mind?

Rubber can be moulded into several shapes and sizes depending on the need and purpose.

It can be rough and durable to withstand harsh weather or fragile enough not to break paper when pressed against it.

A brief history of vulcanized rubber

The history of vulcanized rubber can be traced back thousands of years, from ancient Mexican civilizations to modern-day tire manufacturing.

Along the way, notable figures like Charles Goodyear and Charles Macintosh contributed significantly to its growth. 

The Olmecs are Mexico's first known great civilization to create the first primitive form of vulcanized rubber.

It is said that it combined the sap of the Pará rubber tree and the vine sap.

In the 1920s, in the dissolution of natural rubber in benzene and the first mass-produced sheeting of rubber, Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh and English inventor Thomas Hancock refined the age-old Olmec process.

It led to the famous waterproof fabric "Mackintosh."

Charles Goodyear and the Vulcanization of Rubber

In the mid- 1800s, the discovery by Charles Goodyear of the vulcanization of the rubber industry, a process that allows the rubber to withstand cold and heat.

Goodyear dedicated his life and sacrificed his family's wealth and health to the commercial enhancement of rubber, part dreamer, part entrepreneur.

Goodyear was born in Naugatuck in 1800 when Goodyear had decided that after his father's New Haven hardware business went bankrupt, he went into rubber goods in the 1830s.

Rubber seemed to be a "miracle material" at that time.

There was no stopping Goodyear.

He worked with a wide range of materials, spending several hours hunched over his work, surrounded by poisonous fumes.

When he found that nitric acid smoothed out and rubber made it less sticky, Goodyear thought he found the answer.

He was awarded a contract to make rubber mailbags from the US Post office in Boston and melted in hot weather.

Goodyear accidentally combined rubber and sulfur in a hot stove while working at the Eagle India Rubber Company.

A lot of the rubber didn't melt, to Goodyear's surprise. And it hardened when he raised the heat.

Goodyear would need several more years to remake the chemical formula and perfect the method of sulfur and rubber combination at high temperatures.

He patented the process in 1844, that’s the same year he established the Naugatuck India-Rubber Company in Naugatuck.

Vulcanization was named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, by Goodyear.

Vulcanized rubber advantages:

• Outstanding strength.
• Back to its original form.
• Small absorption of water.
• High oxidation resistance and abrasion resistance.
• Good insulator for electricity.
• Organic solvents are resistant.