A Life of a Rubber Band, By Maya Espitia-Bonning: Key (❉ = Land, ❂ = Labor, ✺ = Capital, ✯= Entrepeneurship)
By maya_eb
-
300 BCE
Brief History of Rubber
( ❉, ❂ )Mayans mixed latex and morning glory vines to make rubber balls, figurines, and to hold axes together. -
Modern use of Rubber
( ❉, ✯)After colonization many british inventors and scientists studied the rubber. In 1845 Stephen Perry invented the modern rubber band. -
Harvesting Rubber
( ❉, ❂, ✺ )Common latex is found in Rubber Trees, the
most elastic type of natural rubber. To harvest
the latex, a V is cut into the tree and usually
yields only 2 ounces and dries up 1 to 2 hours
Later. It is a very time consuming harvest and
takes many hours and laborers to get the amount
that factories want. -
Purification
( ❂, ✺, ✯ )The rubber is put through a purification machine
to clean out any debris, like wood and leaves. -
Kneading
( ❂, ✺ )It is then put into a kneader and comes out like
a clumpy playdough substance. -
Compressing
( ❂, ✺ )The doughy rubber is put in between to rollers, and squeeze out any excess water. -
Adding in Chemicals
( ❂, ✺ )The rubber is the collected in large vats, where chemical like sulfur and formic acid are added in. This makes the rubber stick together and become even more elastic -
Preparing for Shipping
( ❂, ✺ )The rubber is then formed into blocks and are wrapped in plastic. -
Shipping
( ❂ )The blocks of latex are moved from the plantation to the factory. Some of the biggest rubber tree plantations are in Brazil, and other areas surrounding the Amazons. -
Rolling the Rubber
The blocks shipped from the plantation are stretched thinly using a Banbury machine, and then cut by a worker into twisted rolls of rubber. -
Mixing in more Ingredients
( ❂, ✺ )The rolls of rubber are added to a machine were talcum powder (to keep it from sticking in the next step), color dyes, and more chemicals to get the elasticity of the rubber to the company's preferation. -
The Tubes
Once the long, hollow tubes of rubber comes out of the machine they are put over mandrels (aluminum poles) covered in talcum powder. This gives the tubes the preferred size. -
Steaming
( ❂, ✺ )The long, hollow tubes of rubber are then put over aluminum poles called mandrels. The mandrels give the rubber band the required size. They are then loaded into an oven where they are steamed. This helps the rubber become even more elastic. -
Washing the Rubber
( ❂, ✺ ) Once the workers take the rubber tubes off the mandrels, the deflated tubes are taken to a wash basin to clean off all the talcum powder. After being washed, the tubes are put on hooks to dry off. -
Cutting
( ❂, ✺ ) Multiple of the tubes are set into a machine with a spinning blade that cuts the rubber into rubber bands (the average width of a rubber band is 1.5 millimeters). -
Exporting the Rubberbands
( ✯ )Finally! The rubberebands are sold to companies like the US Postal Service and office supply stores, like Staples. Rubber band companies usually sell a pound of rubber bands for $14.
