This week my focus material is Natural Rubber (NR) or what is commonly referred to in the rubber trade as Commercial Rubber, with the most common variant being NR / SBR (Styrene Butadiene Rubber) - a blended material grade giving commercial benefits whilst ensuring that the key material properties are still suitable for the main applications.
Natural Rubber sheet materials are manufactured from a blend of a number of chemical ingredients and materials including a percentage of Pure Gum (Latex) Rubber, tapped from a Rubber Tree. The mix can be tailored to improve the material performance in any given application such as wear resistance, ozone resistance or acid resistance.
Watch this video which shows how to tap a rubber tree:
Applications for Natural Rubber Sheet
My recommendations for where a Natural Rubber would excel are in applications requiring wear resistance and higher levels of tear and tensile strength. Natural Rubber is also my 'go-to' material for high static loads and under certain conditions where a lower temperature environment is involved.
European Manufactured NR Rubber
Here at MacLellan Rubber, we already have available a number of high quality, European manufactured NR Rubber materials delivering a variety of material performance advantages, for example:
1077 RED anti abrasion giving a world-class abrasion performance and designed for the Mining industry as chute liners and skirting rubber; and applications such as road sweeper suction hoses and wear strips.
1062 TAN shot blast, used to line smaller blasting cabinets and as a curtain in larger facilities.
0204 Bridge Bearing tested and certified to EN1337-3 for reinforced bridge bearing pads and strips, pot bearing discs, and used to manufacture metal laminated bridge bearing pads.
We also supply a huge amount of 8313 / 8172 Commercial Rubber and commercial insertion which is my general purpose grade used in thousands of applications in the gasket and sealing market where there are no extremes.
A full list of our available materials and further technical information can be found here on our website, each page also gives you the option to download a full technical data sheet.
Check back to see what material choice will be my next Material of the Week!
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