2000 2000 founder daniel r. swiger jeffery a. martin headquarters chandler arizona u.s. area served worldwide key people jeffrey a. martin director president and ceo products biorubber emulsions biorubber solids biomass website www.yulex.com yulex corporation applies crop science bioprocessing and materials science for the production of agricultural based biomaterials made from guayule parthenium argentatum . the company s materials are designed to replace traditional tropical or petroleum based rubber in consumer industrial and medical products with the residual agricultural materials utilized as a feedstock for bioenergy . 1 contents 1 history 2 founding 3 commercial success 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit guayule first emerged as a commercial crop in mexico the early 1900s through the continental mexican rubber company though it ceased operation in 1912 . in the 1920s the intercontinental rubber company irc was formed in san diego california by the rockefeller family though this venture also failed as a result of the great depression and increased imports of tropical rubber from southeast asia . in the 1930s the united states accelerated its research efforts into polybutadiene and styrene butadiene rubber after significant technological advances were made in germany with synthetic polymers . america s supply of natural rubber from southeast asia was cut off by the japanese during world war ii . congress passed legislation to finance the emergency rubber project to develop guayule as a commercial alternative to tropical rubber . seeking alternative sources of natural rubber the u.s. government purchased the intercontinental rubber company s holdings in california and also began the commercial scale up of polybutadiene and styrene butadiene rubber . over 32 000 acres of guayule were commercially farmed in california and arizona . while the yields from those stands of plants were not sufficient to be commercially viable the demands of war supported the concept of rubber production at any cost and demonstrated guayule s excellent performance characteristics in a broad variety of applications . the u.s. government abandoned guayule production efforts following the war . 2 founding edit yulex corporation was founded in 2000 3 and began a dedicated guayule acreage expansion program planting acreage in arizona in the maricopa agriculture center an enterprise associated with the university of arizona . this program was subsequently expanded to the commercial farming community to provide enough high yielding seed to grow commercial quantities of guayule plant . commercial success edit in 2008 the u.s. food and drug administration fda approved yulex biorubber gloves for medical uses . yulex is the first company to produce biobased medical grade latex that is safe for people with latex allergy . 4 in 2012 yulex received a 6.9 million usda doe grant as part of a research consortium . partnering with the agricultural research service ars and cooper tire yulex will research enhanced manufacturing processes testing and utilization of guayule natural rubber as a strategic source of raw material in tires and evaluate the remaining biomass of the guayule plant as a source of bio fuel for the transportation industry as well work on improving agronomic practices developing genetic information and undertaking a lifecycle analysis . 5 also in 2012 yulex released the first alternative to the traditional neoprene wetsuit in partnership with patagonia 6 the first guayule based mattresses and pillows in partnership with pure latexbliss 7 and the first plant based latex allergy friendly dental dam in partnership with 4d rubber . 8 in 2013 yulex formed a partnership with eni s versalis to expand the reach of guayule into european markets . 9 see also edit parthenium argentatum rubber references edit laird karen 11 february 2013 . green matter another rubber revolution in the making . plastics today . retrieved 21 may 2013 . history . guayule and yulex timeline . retrieved 21 may 2013 . company overview of yulex corporation . retrieved 25 july 2013 . palmer craig 2008 . fda approves glove made from new form of natural latex . the journal of the american dental association . 139 6 . cooper partners review progress in guayule program . retrieved 21 may 2013 . shadley steve 25 march 2013 . surfwear company markets organic wetsuits made of rubber from arizona shrub . kjzz . retrieved 21 may 2013 . james gary january 2013 . power of pillows . bedtimes . retrieved 21 may 2013 . dental dam to use yulex guayule . rubbernews.com . 14 december 2012 . retrieved 21 may 2013 . moore miles 25 february 2013 . yulex versalis join forces to expand reach of guayule . rubbernews.com . retrieved 21 may 2013 . external links edit media related to parthenium argentatum at wikimedia commons data related to yulex at wikispecies official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title yulex & oldid 606223291 categories companies established in 2000companies based in arizonahidden categories use mdy dates from april 2012commons category without a link on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 28 april 2014 at 19 30 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non 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