ABSTRACT
The invention of synthetic amorphous silica, in the late 1940s, also marked the birth for the development of new rubber compounds with many more options and for creating new improved types of rubber. Silica’s progress from a simple filler used for producing colored rubber compound to an important physical performance additive for substantially improving rubber compounds, especially in tire applications, took technically about 20 years. But it did not take long to learn that silica-containing compounds achieve significantly better tensile strength and tear strength. Therefore, silica became an important physical reinforcement ingredient in all kinds of rubber goods in the 1950s and 1960s. Silica manufacturers started to develop and offer specific silicas for different rubber requirements.
