Elastomers are flexible plastic materials that can be molded into different shapes, including natural and artificial rubber. They are used in various industries due to their unique properties, such as resistance to deformation and insulation. Elastomers can also be combined with other materials to enhance certain characteristics. Their cross-linking property allows them to deform and return to their previous shape. However, they are difficult to recycle.
Elastomers are a category of flexible plastic material that is good at insulating, resisting deformation, and molding into different shapes. As a particular type of polymer, elastomers include natural and artificial rubber. We find elastomers in a wide variety of applications, from the wheels of a skateboard and the soles of tennis shoes, to the insulation that covers speaker wires and telephone lines.
Elastomers are useful and diverse substances that easily form various rubbery shapes. Many industries rely on parts made with elastomers, especially automotive, sports, electronics and assembly line factories. This is because these unique polymers offer many unique properties. They are easy to sculpt when in their softened, resinous state. However, once they harden, they remain impervious to changes in most temperature changes and stress such as stretching or compression.
Industries that work with elastomers have long praised them for being very tough when struck, tough when scratched, resistant to corrosion by various chemicals, and resistant to moisture or immersion in water. Because they do not conduct current, they are good electronic insulators. Between several branches of threads, they are dense and protective.
Another beneficial property is that they can be “composed” or combined with other materials to enhance certain characteristics. Other types of polymers can make them less prone to soften at high temperatures or break down around ozone gas. Elastomers can be easily installed next to various other materials, such as metal, hard plastics or different types of rubber, with very good adhesion.
The reason why elastomers can deform and return to their previous shape is their “cross-linking” property. Crosslinking means that several chains of polymer molecules have all been linked together, so that the object can stretch evenly but always return to its pre-stretch arrangement. A downside to this category of plastics is that they are difficult to recycle, but luckily they last a long time without wearing out.
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