What are rubber molds&compression molding machine?

What are custom rubber and silicone molds and rubber molding machines?

Generally speaking, a mold is a tool used to shape materials and form the desired product. 

Typically, materials can be injected, pressed, transferred, or poured into molds. 

The method used depends largely on the type of part being manufactured.

When people think of molds, they most often think of old children's toys, 

which involve pouring molten plastic or candy into small molds and allowing them to harden.

While the process of making real parts and objects is much more complex, the overall idea is similar. 

In fact, there are many industries that can use rubber and silicone molding products.

What different molding techniques does the silicone rubber industry use to produce high-quality parts?

As mentioned above, there are many different types of molds and processes used to manufacture our products. 

Depending on the product being manufactured and the intended use of the resulting product, 

different processes will be selected and may be adjusted to ensure that the resulting product is manufactured correctly.

In our large 5-acre campus, we use a variety of methods to produce high-quality products. 

We also have silicone rubber molding equipment to mold products with a completely different quality efficiency:

General-purpose custom molding of rubber and silicone.

Overmolding services

Liquid injection molding.

How is each molding process completed?

The typical act of creating a custom-molded rubber or silicone product requires making a mold from scratch. 

Depending on the method used, the mold will be made differently.

Still others will use temporary aluminum alloys to create prototype molds. These are usually cut on a CNC machine under the watchful eye of an experienced CNC machinist. In the silicone rubber industry, 

we make molds slightly differently. Instead of using temporary aluminum to tool our customers' parts, we use stainless steel, 718 and 316 steel. Interestingly, 

Silicone Industries' steel tools are initially no more expensive than aluminum, and our stainless/steel tools last longer. It is not uncommon for aluminum formulation tools to become damaged, lose shape, 

or completely lose their high precision before a project is nearly complete or before a second, longer production run becomes impossible. With our tools made from real tool steel, 

we can use the same tooling to produce a customer's entire order and it will almost certainly last much longer than that. We offer custom tooling starting at $800, which is very cheap compared to the amount of replacement tooling required when working with aluminum.

Rubber injection molding

Generally after the mold is created, the commonly used process is rubber or silicone molding. The main idea behind rubber and silicone molding is efficiency, something we have mastered over two decades in business.

First, the materials used for the desired product must be processed to maximize efficiency and minimize waste. To do this, Silicone Rubber Industries takes a mixture of bulk rubber and cuts it into strips about two inches wide and one-half inch thick.

 These strips are long or continuous in length.

After the material is of suitable size, it is automatically fed into the mechanical screw. The screw forces the material into the barrel, which is then preheated to reduce its viscosity. 

Due to its lower viscosity, the rubber fills the cavity of the mold more quickly and easily. 

This allows for more efficient use of material and shortens cure time once the mold cavity is filled.

After the material is heated, it is pushed into the mold cavity until it fills the cavity. Afterward, the material is cooled and solidified to produce the final product.

Injection molding is extremely efficient and precise. When a properly designed mold is used, items made from it can exhibit extremely tight tolerances. 

Since the presses used in rubber injection presses have shorter cycle times, products can be manufactured faster. Our large presses are capable of injecting up to 15 pounds of material in a single cycle. 

Injection molding does not require preforms at all and does not require the presence of workers, thus saving production costs.