[en] There is a bright future for radiation vulcanised natural rubber latex (RVNRL) but there are problems in manufacturing it as the centrifuged latex to be used for radiation has to be kept for at least a month or sometimes even three to six months before adding the sensitisers and even then the latex sometimes coagulates on adding the sensitisers. This paper describes a process by which the latex can be stabilised by addition of an anionic soap before centrifuging so that it has a high mechanical stability and hence can be used even within one week of the manufacture of the centrifuged latex

[en] Radiation Vulcanization of natural rubber latex has been developed extensively through various research and development programme. During these investigations many data was collected and from these data it was proved that radiation vulcanized natural rubber latex (RVNRL) can be used as a new material for industry (RVNRL symposium 1989; Makuuchi IAEA report). This material has been extensively tested in making of dipped goods and extruded products. However these investigations were confined only to laboratory experiments and these experiments mainly reflected material properties of RVNRL and only a little was observed about its behavior in actual production scale operation. The present exercise was carried out mainly to study the behavior of the material in production scale by irradiating latex on a large scale and producing gloves in a production scale plant. It was found that RVNRL can be used in conventional glove plants without making major alteration to the plant. Quality of the gloves that were produced using RVNRL is acceptable. It was also found that the small deviation of vulcanization dose will affect the crosslinking density of films. This will drastically reduce the tensile strength of the film. Crosslinking density or pre-vulcanized relax modulus (PRM) at 100% is a reliable property to control the pre vulcanization of latex by radiation

[en] Radiation vulcanization of natural rubber latex (RVNRL) can be used to make large quantities of specially stabilized latex. It is possible to obtain RVNRL films of tensile strength over 25 MPa. The films could be either coagulant dipped or cast. It is very important to determine the correct radiation dose which gives the maximum tensile strength. Cross linking density or prevulcanized relax modulus (PRM) at 100% is a reliable property to control the prevulcanization