Curious about what liquid silicone rubber molding is all about?
You have come to the right page. We are going to talk about this manufacturing process that involves liquid silicone rubber to create pliable and durable parts in large volumes. This silicone rubber possesses more excellent stability and resistance to heat and cold, hence appropriate in manufacturing parts that demand high-quality.
When you compare these silicone rubber parts to thermoplastics, it offers more options and has better final products. It is a better option to fabricate silicone prototypes where speed, cost, and approximation is your main criteria.
Want to know more about liquid silicone rubber molding? Here are the things that you should know.
Liquid Silicone Rubber Molding as a Rapid Prototyping Technique
It is easy to see why silicone rubber is a preferred option for prototyping. Silicone has a thermosetting nature that needs intensive distributive mixing. What does it mean? Simple, it is easy to create shapes out of silicone rubber for prototyping.
It can include multiple methods that include room temperature vulcanization (RTV) molding, fused deposition modeling, 3D printing, injection molding, and selective laser sintering. Usually, an oven can be used to accelerate the curing time of the material in the RTV method.
The raw materials used for RTV molding are readily accessible, and the investment requirement is low. It makes the creation of tools from plastic materials and soft metal possible. However, this method has its drawbacks too. It has low curing time, but when you have an experienced and skilled technician like those in Nice Rapid Tooling in China, they can create the component prototype in just a day.
Injection molding uses liquid silicone rubber too in preparing soft metal tooling to make molded grade materials. With this method, manufacturing parts is faster than other methods is fast because tooling is quicker.
Some of the advantages of liquid silicone injection molding include:
- Shorter production cycle run
- Zero waste with direct injection
- Allows repeatability of the process
- Offers ‘flashless’ technology
- Fully automated process
- Automated demolding
The Principles Behind Liquid Silicone Rubber Molding
There is a similarity in the design between liquid silicone injection molds and thermoplastic parts molds. However, because liquid silicone rubber has a lower viscosity, filling the cavity requires a shorter time, even with low injection pressures. Having excellent venting molds prevent entrapment of air, and LSR tends to expand in hot molds then shrinks.
Silicone pacifier
Applications of Liquid Silicone Rubber
Silicone rubbers have many interesting properties that can maintain its mechanical properties at varying temperatures. It is also hydrophobic, which makes it a perfect material for electrical surface insulation. Here are some of the most common applications for silicone rubbers that are manufactured through liquid silicone runner molding.
- Kitchen products
- Medical products
- Multi-pin connectors
- Infant products
- Sealing membranes
- Electrical connectors
- Seals
Silicone is a pliable, durable, and safe raw material that can be used in prototypes and products in many applications. The liquid silicone injection rubber molding process is an excellent manufacturing technique because it has a faster process cycle that helps industrial businesses to manufacture their products.