A friend of mine is an executive for Alliance Rubber Company, one of
the largest suppliers of rubber bands in the world. He tells me that
the chart you mentioned was adopted as a universal guideline from the
one created by the US Government’s General Services Administration
Federal Supply Services (since they are one of the most prolific
buyers of rubber bands). Here you can read an excerpt of the Federal
Specifications document “Commercial Item Description A-A-131 Rubber
Bands” which dates back to October 22, 1979 (but has since been
superceded by A-A-131B Rubber Bands 7510 FSS Document Date:
Nov-25-1997) and ZZ-R-1415A(1) dated March, 25, 1980.
KENNER RUBBER COMPANY
http://www.keenerrubber.com/Federal%20Specifications.htm
He went on to say that while there is no systematic “key” to reading
the chart and that it appears to be rather arbitrary in it’s
assignment (typical of the military), the only thing required of a
manufacturer is to know the minimum standard requirements and that the
chart does increase in item stability, content, strength and material
as the assigned gauges (number) increase in size. That is to say the
higher the nomenclature, the higher the quality of the rubber bands
within that range. There is no meaningful or mathematic relationship
(again, quite typical of goverment charting) between the gauge number
and the quality of each size, however. The reason numbers were chosen
before some other potential systems, such as colors or alphabetical
assignments, is obvious. Not everyone wants “red” rubber bands so a
coloring scheme was over-ruled early on. As for letters, there are
only 26 letters in the English alphabet, which limits the number
series to 26. Both naming schemes would have limited the number of
sizes that one could describe in one way or another and proved to be
problematic. Using a numbering system (abletit an arbitrary one)
instead is universally recognized and has no limitations.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
ALLIANCE RUBBER COMPANY
http://www.rubberband.com/products/product.asp?catID=3&catName=Rubber+Band+Products&subcatID=14&subcatName=Commercial+Rubber+Bands&prodID=33
KENNER RUBBER COMPANY
http://www.keenerrubber.com/Federal%20Specifications.htm
US GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL SUPPLY SERVICES
http://apps.fss.gsa.gov/pub/fedspecs/index.cfm
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STANDARDIZATION PROGRAM OFFICE
http://131.82.253.19/quicksearch/basic_profile.cfm?ident_number=44591
http://131.82.253.19/quicksearch/basic_profile.cfm?ident_number=52390
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
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ALLIANCE RUBBER
FEDERAL SPECIFICATIONS “RUBBER BANDS”
FEDERAL SPECIFICATIONS A-A-131 |
