Since 1936 aiming at the promotion and the proper use of natural rubber.
In 1934 the governments of Great Britain, France and The Netherlands, at that time thanks to their colonies good for 97% of the world natural rubber production, agreed upon the Rubber Restriction Agreement. Aim of this agreement was to deal with decreasing prices and increasing stocks for natural rubber on the world market, which threatened to kill the rubber production industry.
Part of the agreement was the introduction of a small tax on natural rubber from which scientific research and promotion of natural rubber could be paid. In the Netherlands this resulted in the foundation of the Rubber-Stichting at October 31, 1936.The Rubber-Stichting and its sister-institutes in the two countries maintained eminent mutual relations, co-ordinated by the International Rubber Research Board.
Between 1936 and 1957
The Rubber-Stichting quickly developed to a nationally and internationally recognised institute with numerous publications on all aspects of the production and application of natural rubber and latex. It saw its continuous growth interrupted during the war years, but the activity was taken up quickly after. In 1952 the Rubber-Stichting had a staff of 226, coming from 68 in 1946. In 1951 staff and equipment moved within Delft, The Netherlands, into a new modern building with laboratories, pilot plant and exhibition and conference facilities. Unfortunately, since then the relation between Indonesia and The Netherlands changed in such a way that almost all activities of the Rubber-Stichting had to be ended in 1957.
After 1957
Staying at low level for a number of years, in 1970 the Board of the Rubber-Stichting decided to support activities aimed on promoting the use of natural rubber or on research, the latter by (co-)financing third parties projects in line with the aim of the Rubber-Stichting. The first projects focussed on the transfer of knowledge and equipment to Indonesian laboratories.
In 1995 it was decided to establish the R-S Information Center for Natural Rubber, under the care of TNO, a well-known independent research organization in The Netherlands. By establishing this Center the Rubber-Stichting aimed to draw the attention of a broad public to the fact that even after more then 100 years natural rubber is still the best material for many applications because of its specific properties.
People from all over the world showed their interest in Natural Rubber by subscribing to the journal Natuurrubber ( our first number, NR 1, 08/1995 See link ), by visiting the website or asking information or by advice by telephone or email.
In 2006, the possibility to approach the Center directly as well as the production and circulation of Natuurrubber had to be ended because the contract with TNO could not be continued ( our last number is NR 42, 04/2006 See link ). Since then, various research projects carried out by the University of Twente, Department of Elastomer Technology and Engineering, have been financially supported. Reseach projects supported by the Rubber-Stichting aim on studying aspects of the processing or application of natural rubber or latex.
The website serves as a general source of information providing the possibility to find information on subjects related to almost all aspects of Natural Rubber.
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