What is the difference in wiper blade performance due to natural rubber and synthetic (or blended) rubber?
Although all the elements of the manufacturing process (mixing, curing, post-curing, surface treatment and cutting) lead to performance issues of rubber, the basic compound used has probably the biggest impact as it directly affects the physical properties such as hardness, tensile strength, elongation and ozone resistance of wiper blade squeegee. Natural Rubber (NR) is the softest elastomer and therefore best for the quality of wipe. While historically, this has been the standard compound with major international brands of wiper blades and continues to be so, more recently dual compounds (blends of NR and other synthetic elastomers) or silicone based compounds have been introduced. This is because synthetic elastomers can outperform NR in durability. However with synthetic elastomers, unless the process is perfected, there can be hardness issues (chatter, noise, smearing etc). ClearPlus offers a range of wiper blades that use NR based compounds and blended compounds.
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