Abstract

Abstract When the synthetic rubber plants began operation in 1943, the Government took steps to establish a system of quality control that would assure that the rubber produced in 16 plants had essentially the same properties and could be used interchangeably by the manufacturers of rubber products. The most important characteristic for quality control was the curing behavior of the rubber. The measurement of this behavior required mixing the rubber with compounding ingredients, vulcanizing the mixed compound for several periods of time, and measuring the tensile properties of the vulcanizates. Early interlaboratory tests led the Government to an extensive standardization program in order to achieve the necessary quality control of production. In this program, it became obvious that the compounding ingredients as well as the methods of mixing, curing, and testing required standardization. Therefore, in 1944, the Rubber Reserve Co. established standard compounding ingredients for testing synthetic rubbers. The first standards were commercial lots set aside and distributed by their suppliers, and consisted of five materials. By 1946 a total of 14 standards had been established. The Office of Rubber Reserve soon recognized that the establishment of suitable standards was a difficult technical problem and called on the National Bureau of Standards for assistance. Finally, in 1948 this Office requested NBS to assume responsibility for these standards. Shortly thereafter, ASTM Committee D-11 appointed a special subcommittee on standard materials, the forerunner of Subcommittee 29 on Compounding Ingredients. This Subcommittee requested the establishment of about 20 standard compounding materials which included the standards required for the synthetic rubber program. The National Bureau of Standards has now available 17 of these materials, including three standard rubbers.

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