subject: The Basic Of Rubber Moulding [print this page] Every time you look around you, you are bound to come face-to-face with rubber from the shoes that you wear to the tires in your car that you rarely pay particular attention to. But what exactly is rubber?
Rubber is an elastic but sticky substance that comes from the latex produced by the gum tree. It has been around for centuries but has only recently found its way to commercial use. They were primarily used by the natives to seal their baskets and jars with a number of Ancient Mayans, even utilizing rubber to form rubber balls for their games. It was Christopher Columbus who first saw the ancient people playing with this rubber ball. Uncured rubber, also known as elastomers, however, cannot be instantly cut and used for commercial purposes. It has to undergo the process of moulding for it to become useable. During this process, a block of rubber is pressed into shape with the help of a moulding metal cavity. It is then exposed to extreme heat activating a chemical reaction process.
Although most rubber manufacturers often make use of heat and pressure in rubber mouldings, there are actually three different ways by which rubber moulding can be done injection moulding, compression moulding, and transfer moulding. All of these methods make use of rubber liquid being poured into a mould. The differences of these methods lie in a number of areas such as the price, the processing time, and the overall engineering requirements it would take for the whole process to be finished.
Rubber moulding is preferred by many rubber manufacturers as it tends to be inexpensive and is known for not leaving any ejection marks as well as any gate. It is mostly used for creation of gaskets, washers, oil seals, square rings, and D-rings, among others. Aside from this, it is also considered useful in creating membrane keypad, silicone keypad, rubber balls, rubber boots, and packing.
There are a number of companies specializing in rubber mouldings that can be found online. However, be sure to take into consideration how long they have been in the industry before you commission them for a project.
