Description This 20 year report includes valuable information for those concerned with protecting wire and wire products from the ravages of atmospheric exposure. Contains 28 tables, 36 graphs and 14 illustrations.

Petroleum products covering a molecular weight range that includes light solvents, lubricating oils, waxes, and residual materials have been used with rubber for at least 150 years. Today, these same products are still used, and, since the advent of synthetic rubber, their use has reached greater proportions than ever before. This chapter, however, will be limited to petroleum oils.

The term “petroleum solvents” describes the special liquid hydrocarbon fractions obtained from petroleum for use in industrial processes and commercial formulations to dissolve, suspend, or transport the other ingredients of the process or formulation. In recent years, the variety of petroleum solvents has been increased considerably due to the development of refinery processes designed primarily for the transformation of low-octane feedstocks to high-octane fuels. These new developments led to the production of certain important solvents and intermediates which were obtained previously only from the coal carbonizing industry. By definition, the solvents obtained from the petrochemical industry-the alcohols, ethers, etc.-are outside the scope of this chapter.

In the early years of petroleum processing, the waxy materials that were separated were regarded as waste with no commercial value. Ultimately, however, wax products were recovered from the waste streams and, with the benefit of additional refining, were found to be useful replacements for natural waxes in many applications. A variety of grades of petroleum wax evolved that covered a broad range of physical properties. Now the petroleum wax product lines are in demand for a wide variety of uses. (It is of some interest to note that the end uses of wax are probably more diverse than the uses of any other petroleum product.)