Rubber is a material that humans have used for centuries, if not millennia. The material that originally came from the rubber tree that is native to the rainforests of South America was a special secret used by the people native to that region, until the European explorers arrived.
Upon discovering this new material, it was quickly put to use, and as the Industrial Revolution and the new age of technology came around, the use of rubber was integral to many new inventions. The 20th Century saw rubber being used for even more cutting edge technological advances, as well as the fact that rubber could also be created artificially in a laboratory – different varieties of rubber with different properties such as Vulcanised rubber were created, and quickly used to fulfil a range of needs of the modern world.
Both natural and man-made rubber really came into its own as humans started to move away from the earth and look to the skies. The 20th Century was the age of air travel, and aeroplane engineers and designers quickly realised that rubber had properties that made it ideal for use in aircraft design and safety.
The skies proved to be no limit, and rubber was also used in the design of the vehicles that would carry human beings into space. Synthetic rubbers such as silicone are still to this day widely used in aerospace engineering.
Rubber has unique properties that make it well suited for the specific challenges that come with sending humans high up into the atmosphere and beyond it. Firstly, rubber is able to withstand huge extremes of temperature and with spaceflight in particular, this is something that posed a big challenge to engineers. Silicone is able to withstand these huge differences that can vary from lower than the coldest temperatures found on earth to over the highest. Silicone is then useful as a heat protective coating for spacecraft.
Another problem with flying at high altitudes, or in space is the lack of oxygen and therefore a need to retain the pressurisation of the cabin. Rubber can be used to form seals which keep the cabin pressure stable and prevent the precious oxygen from leaking out into the sky beyond.
Although rubber is a material that was discovered many years ago, the fact that places like this rubber moulding company www.meadex.co.uk/rubber-moulding/ still have high demand for it is testament to its unique abilities.