About Harboro Rubber Engineering in Rubber      Contents      Introduction      Uses of Rubber      Processing Rubber      Designing With Rubber      Selecting / Specifying Rubber      Quality In Rubber      Rubber Directory      Health & Safety      Measuring Properties      Glossary of Terms          A-B          C-D          E-G          H-O          P-S          T-Z      Request A Copy Contact Information

P-S   PLASTICISERS Liquids which are incorporated into rubber, generally described as plasticisers because of their softening effect. POLYMER General term used to describe all rubbers and plastics. In fact, it is the chemical term used to describe all organic materials which are formed from chains of repeated chemical units. RESILIENCE The technical term used to describe "bounce" or "snap". Increasing resilience means an increasing "bounciness". SCORCH The onset of cure, when chemical reactions begin to take place in the rubber as it is being heated. A "scorched" rubber is no longer processable. SET The degree to which a rubber does not fully recover to its original shape after it has been deformed for a long period of time. Also called "permanent set". STRAIN The change in length of a rubber under tension or compression. A rubber stretched to double its original length would be at 100% strain. STRESS An applied force or load. A load of 1kg applied to a test piece would be a stress of 1kgf.