A forebearer to the rubber industry has been in existence since 1876 when an Englishman, Henry Wickham, returned to England from Brazil with rubber tree seeds he had gathered for germination. However, society's use of rubber predates that existence by almost 3500 years. The MesoAmericans were known to have used the latex produced by the rubber tree for a variety of purposes, including the making of rubber balls that they would use for games and entertainment. Currently, of course, the rubber industry creates a wide variety of products for which rubber is incorporated. The rubber industry not only continues to employ the latex produced by the rubber plant to produce such products, but it has also been able to add polymer blends to enhance that production.
             "The use of polymer blends is an effective method for altering the performance of polymer materials and is widely employed in engineering plastics, rubber and fiber materials" (Chiu, Tsai, 2006, p. 89). Adding polymers to the rubber provides an even more durable product and enhances the usability of natural rubber (NR) as compared to the polybutadiene classification of rubber (BR). Natural rubber is classified as rubber that is derived from natural ingredients, while polybutadiene rubber is classified as containing additives to enhance certain qualities. Chiu's study of the differences between the two classifications of rubber provides evidence that "Natural rubber...has certain advantages, such as flexibility" but the same study shows that "some of its properties fall short in certain applications, such as oil resistance, air permeability, ozone resistance, compression set and thermal aging resistance" (Chiu, p. 89). BR can be classified as one of a number of synthetic rubbers.
             There are a number of reasons why the rubber industry has found it necessary to develop these alternatives to using natural rubber. Those re...