What is latex?
You can buy latex per meter, per centimeter, per lap, per sheet, per sheet, but you can also buy pre-cut strips of latex. Is it a fabric, is it textile, is it plastic, is it plastic? What is latex anyway?
We briefly got the official information from Wikipedia. This is what Wikipedia says about latex rubber:
● latex is a thick, milky-white emulsion, the sap from the Brazilian rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), or from similar plants such as Castilla elastica;
● latex is unvulcanized natural rubber, a solid but still flexible substance that can be made from this sap of the rubber tree, and used to be the basis of all rubber products, such as rubber balls, pneumatic tires, the rubber, the condom, gloves, clothing and latex paint ;
● the word latex is nowadays usually used to indicate latex paint.
Latex comes from the rubber tree
Natural latex is tapped by making notches with a knife in the tree bark (at an angle of 30 °) up to the cambium. At the end of the notch a trough is placed with underneath a collection tray, usually made of aluminum, so the latex is collected drop by drop and can then be collected by the tappers in buckets.
Latex from the Castilla elastica, post-processed with juice from the Ipomoea alba, was already used 3000 years ago in Mexico, among other things for making rubber balls.
The natural rubber based on Hevea was taken home from South America in 1736 by the French researcher Charles Marie de La Condamine, after which rubber evolved into a widely used and manufactured product. He would also have invented the name latex (Latin for milky).
Strength, hardness of rubber latex
The usefulness of latex was increased by chemical processes. Vulcanization, in particular the heating of natural rubber with sulfur, yields a substance with much better properties. The higher the sulfur percentage, the harder the rubber becomes.
Latex allergy
Natural latex is a suspension of many hundreds of natural polymer particles (both rubber, a polymer of isoprene, and proteins). At least 75 of the proteins are allergens; latex can therefore cause a (skin) allergy. For medical applications, for example gloves for surgery, synthetic rubber is therefore used, made on the basis of isoprene or the similar neoprene.
Nowadays, many synthetic rubber is also used in other applications. Despite the name, latex paint also only consists of synthetic dispersions. In addition, natural latex is still produced on a large scale, on rubber plantations, which can only exist in tropical areas.
Latex rubber plantations videos on YouTube
Also take a look at YouTube, there are various films made on rubber plantations, mainly in Asia.
