What are the molding processes for rubber products?

1 Molding

The molding method is commonly used to manufacture certain rubber products with complex shapes such as leather bowls and sealing rings. The rubber material is placed in the mold and heated to form with the help of formed female and male molds.

2 injection molding

For more complex rubber products, such as tire treads, rubber hoses, and metal wire surface coatings, they need to be manufactured by injection molding.

It is a method of putting the mixed rubber with a certain plasticity into the hopper of the extruder and performing continuous shaping through various mouth shapes, also called templates, under the extrusion of the screw.

Before extrusion, the rubber material must be preheated to make the rubber soft and easy to extrude, so as to obtain rubber products with smooth surface and accurate size.

3 Calendering

Suitable for manufacturing simple sheet and plate products. It is a method of pressing the mixed rubber into a film of a certain thickness and width through a calender, which is called calendering.

The textile fiber materials used in some rubber products such as tires, tapes, hoses, etc. must be coated with a thin layer of glue. Applying glue to the fibers is also called gluing or rubbing. The gluing process is usually also completed on the calender.

Fiber materials need to be dried and dipped before calendering. The purpose is to reduce the moisture content of the fiber materials to avoid water evaporation and foaming and to increase the temperature of the fiber materials to ensure the quality of the calendering process.

Glue dipping is a necessary process before glueing. The purpose is to improve the bonding performance of fiber materials and glue.