Materials
Natural Rubber
Natural rubber, as the name implies, is a naturally occurring material produced by the Hevea Brasiliensis tree found in plantations throughout South East Asia or growing wild in South America (its original source). Successful breeding of H. Brasiliensis means that the modern tree will produce relatively large quantities of natural rubber latex consistently for a ten to twenty year period after which the tree is felled and used in furniture making or as a fuel source. This means that H Brasiliensis farming is sustainable and has a small environmental footprint.
Synthetic Rubber
Synthetic rubbers can also be produced as latex, which is used to make gloves in a similar manner to that of natural rubber latex. However, synthetic rubbers are not obtained from trees; they are produced from petroleum feedstock. The petroleum is split into the different building blocks needed to make the synthetic rubber. These building blocks are called monomers and are joined together to make a polymer (which forms the rubber). For example, isoprene monomer is used to make polyisoprene (or Neoprene). Nitrile rubber is made from three monomers: acrylonitrile, butadiene and acrylic acid.
Vinyl
Vinyl is an abbreviation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC is produced from petroleum feedstock by polymerisation of vinyl chloride.
PVC is a hard rigid material which must be softened to be used as a glove material. Softening is achieved by addition of up to 50% by weight of plasticiser.
