Rubber

Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree in Cameroon

Rubber consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Types of polyisoprene that are used as natural rubbers are classified as elastomers. Currently, rubber is harvested mainly in the form of the latex from the rubber tree or others. The latex is a sticky, milky and white colloid drawn off by making incisions in the bark and collecting the fluid in vessels in a process called "tapping". The latex then is refined into the rubber that is ready for commercial processing. In major areas, latex is allowed to coagulate in the collection cup. The coagulated lumps are collected and processed into dry forms for sale.

Use

Natural rubber is used extensively in many applications and products, either alone or in combination with other materials. In most of its useful forms, it has a large stretch ratio and high resilience and also is water-proof.^{[citation needed]}

Dependencies

• Latex
  • Rubber

See also

• Bone
• Grass
• Leather
• Plastic
• Rawhide
• Silk
• Wood
• Wool

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Rubber, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).