Sulfur vulcanization in the processing and compounding of rubber by Hancock and his colleagues led to a more reliable process. Around 1900, disulfiram was introduced as a vulcanizing agent, and became widely used. In 1905 George Oenslager discovered that a derivative of aniline called thiocarbanilide accelerated the reaction of sulfur with rubber, leading to shorter cure times and reducing energy consumption. This breakthrough was almost as fundamental to the rubber industry as Goodyear's sulfur cure. Accelerators made the cure process faster, improved the reliability of the process and enabled vulcanization to be applied to synthetic polymers. One year after his discovery, Oenslager
Rubber technology 1844, but is a process restricted to polymer chains having a Double bond in the backbone. Such materials include natural rubber and polybutadiene. The range of materials available is much wider however, since all polymers become elastomeric above their Glass transition temperature. However, the elastomeric state is unstable because chains can slip past one another resulting in creep or stress relaxation under static or dynamic load conditions. Chemical cross links add the stability to the network that is needed for most practical applications. WORKER PROCESSING RUBBER Methods for processing rubber include mastication and various operations like mixing, calendering, extrusion, all