Mastication

Name:
Mastication
Detailed information:
Permanent softening of crude natural rubber and certain other elastomers by application of mechanical energy, as on a roll mill or in a Banbury mixer. The softening is said to be due to formation of free radicals resulting from the rupture of the polymer chain and the addition of oxygen at these active points. The study of this phenomenon has been called mechanochemistry. This “breaking down” of a high polymer substance, first practiced by Hancock in England, is essential in preparing it for the incorporation of curatives and other modifying substances and is an essential operation in the manufacture of useful products from rubber and rubberlike substances.