Published - 31st Aug 2021
Rubber moulding is a rubber manufacturing process that uses raw rubber compounds and moulds it into the shape required by the customer design brief. Under pressure, rubber will return to its original shape, because elastomers are polymers with inherent elastic properties. These are perfect for any industrial situation where this elastic property is required.
There are many kinds of rubber moulding for different applications depending on the quantity, size, shape and dimensional tolerances required.
Rubber moulding compounds mix a base polymer with other ingredients for different end product rubber properties.
There are three main types of rubber moulding:
Compression moulding uses a heated hydraulic press to fit the mould. The compound is then prepared by extrusion and cutting, or by cutting from sheet rubber into a pre-determined weight and shape. These are known as blanks. The blank is placed into the cavity. We then close the mould and apply heat and pressure to cure (vulcanise) the rubber.
In this process we inject a heated rubber compound under high pressure into a closed mould. The injection process can use diverse materials including neoprene, silicone and EPDM and gives the rubber manufacturer great flexibility in material choice.
This is very similar to compression moulding, except the blank is put into a transfer chamber located either above or below the rubber mould cavity. A piston transfers the rubber through a feed gate into the cavity when the mould is closed in the hydraulic press. The rubber part is then vulcanised as with the compression moulding process.
At Industrial Rubber we manufacture rubber parts using these moulding processes to ensure accuracy and speed of delivery. Get in touch to see how we can help your business move its rubber manufacturing process forwards in the best way possible.
