Two roll rubber mill

Rubber trees are tapped to remove the latex that is stored in their trunks.

His machine included multiple rollers that were used to flatten rubber into thin sheets.

Many other inventors created rubber mills with varying degrees of similarity to Chaffee's initial designs.

A rubber mill consists of two horizontally opposed stainless steel rolls that rotate in opposite directions, at different speeds.

The opposing rotation directions and different speeds produces a combined shear and compression force on the material being mixed on the mill.

The mill aids in two main steps of rubber processing - mastication and mixing.

Mastication is when the raw polymer is sheared and the broken down to create an easier flow.

After mixing, a compound is removed from the mill in a large sheet, and then molded into its desired product.