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Inspecting natural rubber analytically

Latex the white milky juice of the rubber tree, is sold in liquid or solid form as natural rubber. For the production of the liquid state, the tree juice is thickened and stabilized with ammonia. For the production of the solid state, the suitable chemicals are added to the juice of the plant and will coagulate. This solid is washed in various ways, dried and molded mostly into thin slabs.

This shaped and marketable product is extremely elastic; it is considered viscoelastic. The differences in the production of this commercial product require an analytic evaluation of the crude materials, before they can be used for further processing.

Natural rubber processed with dry ice: this method avoids the sticking together of the granules and these therefore remain capable of flowing freely

This crude rubber can only be comminuted manually with cutting tools with great effort. An embrittlement with liquid nitrogen enables the comminution of small amounts with the Universal Cutting Mill PULVERISETTE 19 large. Much more elegant and also very suitable for larger amounts are the embrittlement and the grinding of the material along with dry ice with the PULVERISETTE 19 large. During the test the sieve with 8 mm square perforation was used. The resulting material has a uniform grain size. An additional comminution to an even smaller degree would be possible.