How to Choose Between Natural Rubber and Synthetic Rubber?

Property Profiles

Natural rubber features high elasticity, excellent tensile strength, tear strength, rebound resilience, fatigue resistance, tack, and green strength. The crystalline structure developed under strain enhances its load-bearing capacity, making it difficult to fully substitute in tires, vibration isolation components, and heavy-duty industrial products.

The limitations of natural rubber lie in its generally inferior oil resistance, ozone resistance, high-temperature resistance, and long-term weatherability compared with certain synthetic rubbers. Synthetic rubbers can be tailor-designed for oil resistance, heat resistance, ozone resistance, low-temperature performance, or gas impermeability.

Typical Synthetic Rubber Applications

SBR provides abrasion resistance, balanced performance, and cost efficiency, and is used in tires, conveyor belts, and shoe soles; BR offers high rebound, low heat buildup, and wear resistance, and is used in tires and shoe soles; EPDM delivers ozone resistance, weatherability, and hot water/steam resistance, and is used in sealing strips and coolant hoses; NBR is oil-resistant and used in oil seals, fuel hoses, and hydraulic hoses; HNBR provides oil and heat resistance for premium hoses and oilfield rubber goods; FKM withstands high temperatures, oil, and chemicals, and is used in high-performance seals.

Blending and Selection

In practice, NR is often blended with BR, SBR, and others to balance performance and cost. Do not assume a customer necessarily uses natural rubber upon seeing "rubber products"; instead, first examine the medium, temperature, dynamic load, abrasion resistance, color, and service life requirements.