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Calendered rubber is made by compressing rubber between two rollers, and can contain steel or fabric. It is used in shoe soles, car tires, and firefighter boots. The calendering process is also used to give paper a smooth finish.
Calendered rubber is part of your daily life, even if you may not know what it is. Calendered rubber is made by dragging rubber through the small gap between two rollers. Extreme pressure forms rubber into sheets. Calendered rubber can also be made with steel or fabric, creating a composite material.
To see one of the main ways calendered rubber affects your life, take off your shoes and turn them around. The outsole, with its rubber tread, is most likely calendered rubber. In the shoe manufacturing process, soles are made in whole sheets. The rubber is first passed through smooth rollers, which flatten it so that it can be used as a sole, and then a textured roller which embosses the tread pattern and any manufacturers’ marks. Once the calendering process is finished, the soles are cut from the rubber sheets, much like cutting cookies from freshly rolled dough.
Another way calendered rubber improves your life is by providing transportation: Your car’s tires are made of calendered rubber. You may not know it, but your tires have steel belts inside the rubber that help give them shape and strength. The steel belts enter the rubber through the calendering process: the steel belts are run through the rollers with the rubber on both sides. The extraordinary pressure that the rollers exert on the steel and rubber causes the rubber to bond to the steel.
Calendered rubber can also contain materials other than steel. For example, calendered rubber is sometimes made with fabric inside it. As in the tire manufacturing process, rubber is placed on both sides of the fabric and the three layers are rolled together through rollers. Just as with tire rubber, the extreme pressures of the calendering process cause the rubber to bond with the fabric.
Your heroes also rely on calendered rubber to provide them with their ‘superpowers’ – calendered rubber is used to make the tough, fire resistant boots worn by firefighters. As you can see, calendered rubber touches your life in many ways whether you realize it or not.
The calendering process is used to make things other than calendered rubber. For example, paper is calendered to give it a smooth finish. The coating used on the paper and the amount of calendering the paper goes through determine whether the finished product has a matte or glossy appearance. For a rougher look, the card can be left without a calendar.
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