Page 210 - Handbook of Plastics Technologies

ELASTOMERS

4.2 CHAPTER 4

until reports about it were made (1736 to 1751) to the French Academy of Sciences by
Charles de la Condamine and François Fresneau. They called the substance by the name
used by the natives, caoutchouc. Before 1800, natural rubber was used only for elastic
bands and erasers, and these were made by cutting up pieces imported from Brazil. Joseph
Priestley is credited with the discovery, c.1770, of its use as an eraser, thus the name rub-
ber. In 1823, Charles Macintosh found a practical process using rubber to waterproof fab-
rics, and in 1839 Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization, which revolutionized the
rubber industry. In the latter half of the 19th century, the demand for rubber insulation by
the electrical industry and the invention of the pneumatic tire extended the demand for
rubber. Since the introduction of natural rubber, but not until fairly recently (starting in the
1930s), many synthetic vulcanizable rubbers, having various clusters of specific properties
suited for different uses, have been developed.
Examples of vulcanizable elastomers include natural rubber (NR), styrene butadiene
rubber (SBR), butadiene rubber (BR), ethylene-propylene-diene monomer-rubber
(EPDM), butyl rubber (IIR), polychloroprene or neoprene (CR), epichlorohydrin rubber
(ECO), polyacrylate rubber (ACM), millable polyurethane rubber, silicone rubber, and flu-
oroelastomers. Examples of thermoplastic elastomers include thermoplastic polyurethane
elastomers, styrenic thermoplastic elastomers, polyolefin-based thermoplastic elastomers,
thermoplastic polyether-ester (copolyester) elastomers, and thermoplastic elastomers
based on polyamides.
This chapter is a perspective of the science and technology of elastomers and does not
include a market analysis. Nevertheless, we must mention that the global market for these
materials is large (Fig. 4.1). Global vulcanizable (conventional, vulcanizable) rubber con-
sumption was about 20 million metric tons in 2004, whereas thermoplastic elastomer
(TPE) consumption was about 1.5 million metric tons. The consumption of conventional
rubbers is growing at a rate of about 3 to 4 percent, whereas the growth of TPE consump-
tion is growing at about twice that rate.

FIGURE 4.1 Estimated global consumption of rubbers and elastomers.

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