It’s true that humans like to have their cake and eat it too, and the industrial rubber industry is no exception! Made from a durable blend of plastic and natural rubber material, synthetic thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) rubber is equipped with the durability and resilience of rubber as well as the incredible flexibility of plastic. But what is the history of synthetic rubber? How was this versatile thermoplastic blend discovered and how did it come to be such a popular and successful material used in the manufacturing of rubber sheet? Believe it or not, the history of synthetic rubber production started with a very familiar name in the modern American automotive industry and a lot of hard work and continuous development that spanned many, many years.

In 1839, the namesake of the modern American automobile tire Charles Goodyear invented the process of rubber vulcanization that is used today to fortify rubber for use in industrial sheet rubber and other applications – including in vehicle tires (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Goodyear)! Goodyear’s discovery of the vulcanization process filled a specific need in modern society for a rubber material that would survive some of the most extreme temperatures without cracking or suffering long-term damage. Through vulcanization, rubber is “crosslinked” – in other words, all of its “chainlike rubber molecules [are tied] together to form one big molecule,” thereby making it much harder to crack or break . By inventing this process, Goodyear made a significant discovery that would lead to our widespread modern use of thermoplastic rubber elastomers in a wide variety of applications.

But the history of synthetic rubber doesn’t stop there: while the vulcanization process typically crosslinks the molecular makeup of rubber to make it more resilient in extreme weather conditions, the process also makes rubber much harder to recycle because crosslinked rubber does not mold or shape very easily and so typically molding must happen first.

Thermoplastic rubber, however, provided a possible solution to inflexible vulcanized rubber. Some types of synthetic rubber materials, such as styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), are not crosslinked and can be “molded and remolded again and again”. Synthetic rubber, a polymer, was first developed in the 1940s during World War I and is defined as “any type of artificial elastomer mainly [synthesized] from petroleum byproducts. An elastomer…can undergo much more elastic deformation under stress than most materials and still return to its previous size without permanent deformation” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_rubber). These synthetic rubbers eventually led to the development of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) rubber in the 1950s, when thermoplastic polyurethane polymers were made commercially available. The history of synthetic rubber only grows from there: during the 1960s and 1970s, styrene block copolymer became widely available and a range of TPEs were developed for commercial use and mass production of TPE rubber products became a reality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoplastic_elastomer).

Synthetic TPE rubber is now one of the most common materials used to manufacture industrial rubber products. Because it can be produced more effectively in smaller batches, it is a great alternative to the less sophisticated synthetic industrial rubbers. Thermoplastic sheet rubber has found a permanent place in the automotive industry – alongside Charles Goodyear’s name! – as well as in the manufacturing of household appliances, such as gaskets or sealant. Synthetic rubber TPEs can also be found in snowmobile tracks, catheters, automobile weather stripping, and even in the soles of shoes. If you think about it, thermoplastic rubber is in almost every garage and household! They are some of the most versatile industrial materials used across the globe.

Here at Rubber-Cal, we sell a versatile line of Santoprene thermoplastic sheets made from a blend of Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) and Polypropylene. This family of high-performance elastomers combines the performance characteristics of vulcanized rubber – including low compression set and incredible flexibility – with the processing ease of thermoplastics. These hybrid products provide top-of-the-line durability and a long, proven history of quality that you know you can trust.

TPE products are the best of both worlds. Thanks to Charles Goodyear and the later development of thermoplastic elastomer rubbers, the modern industrial rubber industry no longer needs to sacrifice durability for flexibility and vice versa. With a fantastic material that looks and feels like rubber but retains some of the most versatile qualities of plastic, you can have your cake and eat it too!