The tubes of rubber are then forced over aluminum poles called
mandrels, which have been covered with talcum powder to keep
the rubber from sticking. Although the rubber has already
been vulcanized, it rather brittle at this point, and needs
to be cured before it is elastic and usable. To accomplish
this, the poles are loaded onto racks that are steamed and
heated in large machines. 8 Removed from the poles and washed
to remove the talcum powder, the tubes of rubber are fed into
another machine that slices them into finished rubber bands.
Rubber bands are sold by weight, and, because they tend to
clump together, only small quantities can be weighed accurately
by machines. Generally, any package over 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms)
can be loaded by machine but will still require manual weighing
and adjusting.
