LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rubber: Industrial Rubber
built 281 days ago
Industrial Rubber (OTC:INRB) was in lease negotiations to open the plant outside the state, but government officials put together a package that enticed the Hibbing-based company to expand at home. The package includes a JOBZ tax abatement and a $1.5 million loan from Iron Range Resources.
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Flexible material that can recover its shape after considerable deformation.The best-known rubber is natural rubber, made from the milky latex of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Natural rubber is still important industrially, but it now competes with synthetic alternatives (e.g., neoprene, silicone) derived from petroleum, natural gas, and other source materials. Rubber's usefulness is based on the unique elasticity of its constituent polymer molecules (built of thousands of isoprene monomers; see isoprenoid), which are capable of returning to their original coiled shape after being stretched to great extents; it is made more durable by vulcanization with sulfur or another agent that establishes chemical cross-links between the polymers. Fillers and other additives allow tailoring of properties to the desired use (e.g., by foaming, shaping, and curing). More than half of all rubber goes into making tires; the rest is used principally in belts, hoses, gaskets, shoes, clothing, furniture, and toys.
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The use of rubber is widespread, ranging from household to industrial products, entering the production stream at the intermediate stage or as final products. Tires and tubes are the largest consumers of rubber, accounting for around 56% total consumption in 2005. The remaining 44% are taken up by the general rubber goods (GRG) sector, which includes all products except tires and tubes.
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Natural rubber has been regarded as strategic material by the world and listed as one of the four-most-important industrial raw materials, together with coal, steel and petroleum. With the development of China's booming economy and the move of the world's well-known tire manufacturers into China mainland, China' s consumption and import volume of natural rubber has leapt to No. 1 in the world.
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