Articles made from latex have proven to show better ageing characteristics, greater solvent resistance, and higher strength compared to the ones directly manufactured from dry rubber.
The vulcanization of rubber is crucial to the process. There are 2 ways that vulcanized latex film is produced. One of them is to cure the latex while it's in a liquid state. That material is known as 'pre-vulcanized latex'.
The second way is incorporating the vulcanizing ingredients directly into the latex, then heating it, which cures the latex film once it is deposited and dried. This kind of compound latex is known as 'vulcanizing latex'.
Pre-vulcanized latices have quite a long storage life and are easy to handle. Once a deposit of film has been added by the methods above all that is required to have a suitable project is the drying.
Regular vulcanizing latex, however, has only a limited shelf life. The rubber that is deposited from the latex needs to be heated at a very high temperature in order to cause the vulcanization after drying. A Vulcanizing latex is actually cheaper to produce than its counterpart (pre-vulcanized latex) and it carries additional important advantages like improved tensile strength, tear resistance, and better filler acceptance.
Synthetic Latexes:
Synthetic latexes can be prepared in 2 ways:
1. Emulsion Polymerization (where the polymer is a prepared emulsion).
2. In Water (where the dry powdered polymer is dispersed in water).
Both the natural and the synthetic latexes are used widely, especially in regard to producing rubber goods. There are latex paints, commonly referred to as 'rubber-base paints', that consist of a latex that has been coloured by adding a pigment to the mix.
There are several types of formulations on the market today that include the ones used for castings,adhesives, coatings, various dipped products, and latex moulds. Some examples are -
Rigid Casting Compound
Flexible Casting Compound
Latex Moulding Compound
Dipping and Spraying Compound
General Purpose Compound
Blue Latex Moulding Compound
and others as well. The applications of these latex compounds are quite numerous. The mixtures based on both the natural and the synthetic latex are used for textile, automotive, aircraft, mattress, and carpet industry. These compounds play a crucial role in binding pile material, improving cutting strength, enhancing the adhesion of materials, and increasing the comfort level of the end product by incorporating a foam system.
The most important groups of compounds include -
Tile Precoat
Precoat
Grassbacking Compounds
Base for Rubbercrumb
Textile Applications
Vulcanization Products
Additives
Self Gel Foam
No-gel Foam
Base for Grassbacking
Ammonium Acetate Gel Foam
Secondary Backing
Automotive Compounds
Dot Compounds
Important Fact - Latex Gloves
Everyone has heard of latex gloves. These are made from a renewable resource known as (NR), or natural rubber. Natural rubber latex gloves are indeed natural products. They come from the NR latex derived from a tree called the 'Hevea Brasiliensis, by tapping the bark. These are different from all the other synthetic gloves that are actually made out of petrol chemicals.