 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 ] Next Last |
Whatever the true history, the discovery of the rubber-sulfur reaction revolutionized the use and applications of rubber, and changed the face of the industrial world.
Up to that time, the only way to seal a small gap on a rotating machine, or ensure that the gas (usually steam) in a cylinder applied its force to the piston with minimal leakage, was by using leather soaked in oil. This was acceptable up to moderate pressures, but above a certain point, machine designers had to compromise between the extra friction generated by packing the leather ever more tightly, or face greater leakage of the precious steam.
Vulcanized rubber offered the ideal solution. With vulcanized rubber, engineers had a material which could be shaped and formed to precise shapes and dimensions, and which would accept moderate to large deformations under load and recover quickly to its original dimensions once the load was removed. These, combined with good durability and lack of stickiness, are the critical requirements for an effective sealing material.
Further experiments in the processing and compounding of rubber were carried out, mostly in the UK by Hancock and his colleagues. These led to a more repeatable and stable process.
In 1905, however, George Oenslager , discovered that a derivative of aniline called thiocarbanilide was able to accelerate the action of sulfur on the rubber, leading to much shorter cure times and reduced energy consumption . This work, though much less well-known, is almost as fundamental to the development of the rubber industry as that of Goodyear in discovering the sulfur cure. Accelerators made the cure process much more reliable and more repeatable. One year after his discovery, Oenslager had found hundreds of potential applications for his additive.
Thus, the science of accelerators and retarders was born. An accelerator speeds up the cure reaction, while a retarder delays it. In the subsequent century, various chemists have developed other accelerators, and so-called ultra-accelerators, that make the reaction very fast, and are used in the compounds used to make most modern rubber goods.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|