WHAT EXACTLY IS VULCANIZATION?
If we avoid all academic discussions about Vulcanization, we can say that Vulcanization is named after Vulcan, the ancient Roman host of fire, and it is the combination of various ingredients with the rubber under controlled heat to create a flexible elastomer. Rubber that is not vulcanized is usually hard under low temperature and very soft at high temperature. Un-vulcanized rubber is also “tacky”, and when stretched, deforms very easily. Un-vulcanized rubber shows “plasticity” as opposed to “elasticity”. Vulcanization corrects these defects while greatly increasing the tensile strength of the rubber.
