The first car tyre made from synthetic rubber

On 15 February 1936, IG Farben presented the first car tyre made from synthetic rubber (styrene-butadiene rubber, BUNA) to the public, thereby conclusively demonstrating that natural rubber was not required for the manufacture of car tyres. What was intended to be part of the Nazis’ contingency plan in the event of a raw materials embargo during wartime – something Germany had already experienced during the First World War – eventually became the international standard for the manufacture of car tyres.

Anyone wishing to hold their own successfully in war must secure a temporary supply of essential goods. Anyone dependent on third parties for the production of war-related goods becomes easy prey if the enemy succeeds in restricting the supply of raw materials. Historians therefore regard the naval blockade imposed by the Allied forces as a decisive turning point in the First World War, which led to Germany’s defeat. To prevent such a thing from happening again, the National Socialists set about making Germany independent of essential raw material imports.

The aim was to either replace key materials such as cotton, petroleum (or petrol) and rubber with alternative substances, or to produce them artificially in the laboratory – in other words, to synthesise them. This called for the involvement of the German chemical industry, which had come together to cooperate within the ‘Interessengemeinschaft (IG) Farben’. Synthetic fibres were to serve as a substitute for cotton; petrol was synthesised from coal; and natural rubber was replaced by artificially produced styrene-butadiene rubber (Buna); the process for producing Buna was developed in 1926 by Walter Bock and Eduard Tschunkur at the I.G. Farbenindustrie’s Leverkusen plant, and a patent application was filed on 15 January 1927.

The name ‘Buna’ is derived from the initial letters of the synthesis components, butadiene and sodium. Sodium acted as a catalyst for the polymerisation of butadiene in the presence of styrene. Buna (-S) is a copolymer consisting of 70 per cent butadiene and 30 per cent styrene. The word mark ‘Buna’ was registered on 11 July 1929 for IG Farben, which was dismantled after 1945 partly because of its role in the run-up to the Second World War.

Authors
, Lennart Wehmeier/Guido Deußing
Editorial office
Dipl.-Ing. Guido Deußing, Neuss
Email: guido.deussing@pressetextkom.de