The origin and development of rubber joints

As early as the 11th century, the people of South America began to use wild natural rubber. In 1736, the Frenchman C. Condamine participated in the French Academy of Sciences' expedition to South America and observed that the latex flowing out of Hevea can be solidified into an elastic substance. Later, rubber samples of wild Hevea trees in the Amazon basin were sent back to Paris and began to attract the attention of Europeans. In 1823, C. Mackintosh established the first waterproof tape factory in England. In the same period, the British T. Hancock found that the rubber can be repeatedly processed through the gap of two rotating drums, which can reduce the elasticity and improve the plasticity.

This discovery laid the foundation for rubber processing. He is recognized as the pioneer of the world rubber industry. In 1839, C. Goodyear, a Chinese, discovered that co-heating of rubber and sulfur can greatly increase the elasticity of rubber, and it is no longer sticky when heated, so that the rubber has good performance. The discovery of rubber vulcanization methods played a key role in promoting the application of rubber. In the mid-19th century, the rubber industry had begun to take shape. It has been able to produce tapes, rubber shoes, rubber hoses, rubber sheets and some daily necessities.

American inventor Charlie Goodyear is also experimenting with rubber modification. He heats natural rubber and sulfur together, hoping to obtain a substance that remains dry and elastic at all temperatures throughout the year. He did not succeed until February 1839. One day he mixed rubber, sulfur, and turpentine into a pot (sulfur was only for dyeing), and accidentally spilled the mixture on the hot stove. To his surprise, the mixture did not melt when it fell into the fire, but remained charred as it was, and the incompletely charred mixture left in the furnace was elastic. He peeled the splatter off the stove, only to find that he had prepared the stretchy rubber he wanted. After continuous improvement, he finally invented the technology of rubber vulcanization in 1844.

The rubber joint is a flexible pipe connector that was researched and invented in the late 1980s. It is widely used in pumping stations, pump rooms, heating, air conditioning, ventilation and other pump bodies and pipelines that transport various fluid media. It can extend, compress, deflect and displace, and can effectively prevent pipeline damage caused by foundation settlement and pipeline rupture caused by thermal expansion and contraction. And high pressure resistance, corrosion resistance, aging resistance, vibration resistance, noise reduction effect is obvious, will play a significant role in protecting equipment and prolonging the service life of equipment.

Rubber joints are also called rubber tube soft joints, flexible rubber joints, rubber soft joints, and flexible rubber joints. According to the connection method, it can be divided into 3 types: loose flange type, fixed flange type and threaded type; according to the structure, it can be divided into 5 types, such as single sphere, double sphere, different diameter body, curved sphere and air pressure coil. The tubular rubber parts are composed of inner and outer layers of rubber, cord layers and steel rings, and are then loosely assembled with metal flanges or parallel joints after being vulcanized and formed. This product can reduce vibration and noise, and can compensate for thermal expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes, and widely used in various piping systems.