Engineering with Rubber

ENGINEERING WITH RUBBER Edited by WALTER K. BURTON. Originally published in 1919. PREFACE: When man sots out to build and market a new product a machine for removing dents from automobile fenders, for example he may decide that some rubber parts are needed. He finds it necessary, therefore, to know some of the engineering, application, and design principles involving rubber hose, gaskets, and molded pieces of rubber. In looking about for information, he can pick up a helpful fact here and there from manufacturers pamphlets, folders, and booklets but sometimes he gets lost in a maze of words and pictures. Perhaps he consults the engineering department of some rubber manufacturer but, more likely than not, he goes ahead with his designing, making what he thinks are the proper provisions for whatever rubber parts he expects to include. Then, much too late, he establishes contact with rubber technicians and learns that he will have to make radical changes in design in order to take advantage of their recommendations. To help eliminate this confusion, the editor collaborated with The B. F. Goodrich Company, Akron, Ohio, to gather material for a book dealing with industrial rubber products and their application to industrial uses. This volume is the result. It summarizes, in convenient form, much of the miscellaneous information that was scattered through countless folders, booklets, catalogue pages, price sheet - s, and the minds of technicians. It provides basic information to start the reader on the right track and to induce him, if he happens to be a product designer, to consult with rubber men in the early blueprint stage of a new product. In order to obtain a clear idea of what design engineers and others would like to see in such a volume, an extensive mail survey was conducted and manufacturers were visited personally. Many of the ideas and suggestions that they contributed have been included in this text. The book deals with specific subjects, such as kinds of rubber and their properties, adhesives, latex products, belting, hose, molded and extruded parts, coverings and linings, gaskets, sponge rubber, hard rubber, and rubber mountings. The more important American-made rubbers, formerly classed as synthetic rubber, are included, as are some non rubber materials such as plasticized polyvinyl chloride. The book contains basic information on physical and chemical proper vi Preface ties of various rubber compounds, structural details of industrial rubber products, and typical dimensions. Because of the continuous, rapid growth of rubber science and engineering, many of the precise values in this book may be subject to modification from time to time. It might seem that such a book would make it less necessary for the potential user of industrial rubber to consult a rubber technician or manufacturer for assistance in planning a new product or application...