PROCESSING AND CLASSIFICATION OF NATURAL RUBBER 

Rubber is obtained from rubber trees in the form of latex. Byproducts of latex collection are cup lumps.

Natural rubber

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Rubber is harvested mainly in the form of the latex from the rubber tree. 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". In major areas, latex is allowed to coagulate in the collection cup. The cup lumps are collected and processed into dry forms for sale.

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.

Products are covered with rubber, foam, silk produced from latex; while other products (for example, tires) are made from cup lumps. The different types of commercial natural rubber are shown in the figure below

In this article, we mention natural rubber and the Technically Specified Rubber (TSR). 

Natural rubber (NR) traditional production has 3 methods: Ribbed Smoked Sheets (RSS), Hot Air Dryer sheet (ADS), and crepe rubber. RSS is the oldest and most popular method of processing latex type rubber. 

In RSS, rubber is collected, then, the dry rubber content (DRC) will be reduced to about 12.5%, coagulating, incubating overnight, rolling the next day, and drying. The rolling process allows the latex coagulation mass to form the sheet after incubation. The actual sheeting process is to squeeze the serum in the coagulant outward and reduce its thickness to about 3.0 mm bypassing the coagulant through four flat-rolled rolls and finally grooved shafts. RSS is dried in smoke (45 - 63oC), while ADS is dried in a hot air chamber. Sheet after drying is examined and classified.

Recently, the demand for Technically Specified Rubber (TSR) in the block form is increasing. So most of the natural rubber-producing countries are converting traditional rubber processing into TSR. Mass rubber production is essentially the conversion of wet raw rubber into a granular form by rapid and continuous processing techniques. 

Finally, the dried samples or seeds are agglomerated into solid cup lumps. Technical natural rubber in block form made from latex is light-colored according to Malaysian standard rubber (SMR L), constant viscosity (SMR CV). Production of SMR L primarily focuses on color, with the addition of sodium metabisulfite at the content of 0.04% dry rubber (DRC). In the production of SMR CV, neutral hydroxylamine sulfate is added at 0.15% DRC. The most common types of TSR produced from latex or in combination with latex, in the form of solid rubber are SMR 10 and SMR 20; SMR GP, SMR 10 CV, and SMR 20 CV.

At this moment, Mega Chemical Vietnam is providing a wide variety of natural rubber for partners. 

Contact

MEGA VIETNAM

Office address: Floor 2-A2-IA20, Nam Thang Long Urban Area, Pham Van Dong Street,

Dong Ngac Ward, Bac Tu Liem District, Hanoi City, Vietnam

Tel: (+84) 24 375 89089; Fax: (+84) 24 375 89 098

Website: megavietnam.vn

Hotline: 1800.577.728 Zalo: 0971.023.523