Being the 4th largest producer and 2nd largest consumer of natural rubber in the world the Indian Rubber Industry has been growing in along with the strength and importance, as a part of India’s burgeoning role in the global economy. There are about 4600 registered units comprising of 30 large scale, 300 medium scale and around 4400 small scale and tiny units which form part of the colossus of the natural rubber industry in India. This shows the increased demand and production of rubber and rubber based products in India. The wide range of rubber products manufactured by the Indian rubber industry comprises of auto tyres, tubes, automobile parts, footwear, belting, hoses, cycle tyres and tubes, cables and wires, camelback, battery boxes, latex products, pharmaceutical goods, besides molded and extruded goods for mass consumption. The important areas which the industry caters to include all the three wings of defence, civil, aviation, aeronautics, railways, agriculture, transport as also textile engineering industries, pharmaceuticals, mines, steel plants, ports, family planning programmes, hospitals, sports, practically to every conceivable field. The production of these wide range of products points to the need of an effective market intelligence mechanism for the industry as well for the producers to cope up with the need of international and domestic market. In Indian Rubber Industry, the most important forms in which natural rubbers processed and marketed are Sheets, Crepes, Block Rubber and Preserved Latex Concentrates and Sheet Rubbers are designated as RSS 1, RSS 2, RSS 3, RSS 4, RSS 5 and are marketed. Block Rubber is designated in the grades of ISNR. Although the production is around 899,400 tonnes per annum the demand-supply gap is still widening on a monthly basis necessitating more imports. The major Indian Rubber Consumption is in the automotive tyre sector (50% consumption of all kinds of rubbers). The government promotes the development of the rubber industry in India, through research, services to growers and workers, manufacturing facilities, and other technical aids. Govt. of India provides funds to R&D centres to support Rubber Industries & end users to improve the quality of rubber products. The research projects include coir project for utilization of Coconut Coir / Fiber and its by-products in various rubber, Use of Electron Beam Radiations in Rubber Products especially Tyres, Belts etc, Silica modification to reduce PH –A , Reinforcing white nano fillers for environment friendly rubber. The research fields in rubber industry also aims in developing high performance nanocomposites for various applications like green tyres, inner lining of the tyres with less permeability etc. The research area in his field also includes the development of highly impermeable rubber nanocomposite for inner lining of tryes, by using natural rubber based blends like NR/SBR (styrene butadiene rubber), NR/CIIR (chlorobutyl rubber) etc for various applications and incorporating nanofillers into it for property enhancement. Latex stage compounding of micro and nano fillers and filler dispersion in rubber blends are some of the projects being done in collaboration between universities and rubber industries.

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of staining and bleaching on CAD/CAM materials with high (HT) and low translucency (LT or T). Samples were stored in coffee and subsequently bleached. CIELAB parameters were recorded at baseline, after coffee immersion, after bleaching. Translucency parameter (TP), whiteness index (WID) and color changes were calculated (ΔE₀₀). Influence of staining and bleaching was analyzed with repeated-measures ANOVA and color differences between materials were analyzed with one-way ANOVA (α=0.05). Staining and bleaching significantly affected CIELAB parameters and WID for all materials (p<0.001). TP was significantly influenced by staining and bleaching for Crios and Enamic (p<0.05). Mean color differences were significantly different between materials (p<0.001). The greatest color changes due to staining were observed for Lava Ultimate while the lowest for e.max CAD. Both coffee staining and bleaching induced greater color changes for HT materials of the same brand compared to LT.