There are many kinds of rubber products, but the production process is basically the same. With general solid rubber (raw rubber) as raw material products, its production process mainly includes: raw material preparation → plasticizing → mixing → molding → vulcanization → dressing → inspection.
Raw material preparation
The production of rubber products first requires raw material preparation, which includes the preparation of raw rubber, compounding agents, fiber materials and metal materials. Among them, raw rubber is the basic material, and the compounding agent (such as reinforcement, vulcanization agent, softener, etc.) is an auxiliary material added to improve some properties of rubber products. Fiber materials (cotton, hemp, wool and various man-made fibers, synthetic fibers) and metal materials (steel wire, copper wire) are used as skeleton materials for rubber products to enhance mechanical strength and limit product deformation. During the preparation of raw materials, the ingredients must be weighed accurately according to the recipe.
Plasticizing and mixing
Raw rubber is elastic and lacks the necessary properties (plasticity) for processing, so it is not easy to process. In order to improve its plasticity, it is necessary to plasticize the raw glue. In this way, the compound is easily evenly dispersed in the raw rubber when mixing, and at the same time, it also helps to improve the permeability of the rubber material (into the fiber fabric) and the molding fluidity during the calendering and molding process. The process of breaking down the long chain molecules of raw glue to form plasticity is called plastication. There are two kinds of plastic plasticizing methods: mechanical plasticizing and thermoplasticizing. Mechanical plastication is at a not too high temperature, through the effect of mechanical extrusion and friction of the plasticator, the degradation of long chain rubber molecules becomes shorter, and the high elastic state is transformed into a plastic state. Thermoplasticizing is to pass hot compressed air into the raw rubber, and under the action of heat and oxygen, the degradation of long chain molecules becomes shorter, so as to obtain plasticity.
In order to adapt to a variety of different conditions of use, obtain a variety of different properties, but also in order to improve the performance of rubber products and reduce costs, it is necessary to add different compounds in raw rubber. Mixing is to mix the raw rubber and the compounding agent after plasticizing, put them in the rubber mixing machine, and make the compounding agent completely and evenly dispersed in the raw rubber through the mechanical mixing. Mixing is an important process in the production process of rubber products, if the mixing is not uniform, it can not give full play to the role of rubber and compounding agents, affecting the performance of the product. The rubber material obtained after mixing is called the rubber compound, which is a semi-finished material for the manufacture of various rubber products, commonly known as the rubber material, usually sold as a commodity, buyers can use the rubber material directly processed, vulcanized and made of the rubber products needed. Depending on the formula, there are a range of different grades and varieties of mixed rubber with different properties to provide choices.
Forming and curing
Molding is to cut or punch the mixed rubber material into a simple shape, add to the heating mold, vulcanize at the same time, the product is also hot demoulding. The molding method is also a very important molding method in the rubber industry, and many rubber model products such as gaskets and shock absorbing products are produced by this method. Vulcanization is a key process in the production of rubber products, through heating and pressure to vulcanize rubber products, so as to obtain the required physical and mechanical properties.
Trimming and checking
When rubber mold products are vulcanized, the rubber material will flow out along the parting surface of the mold and other parts to form an overflow rubber edge, foamed rubber products, also known as raw edge or flash, the amount and thickness of the rubber edge are determined by the structure of the mold, the precision, the parallelism of the plate vulcanization machine and the amount of glue remaining. Now the products produced by the endless mold, the rubber edge is particularly thin, and sometimes it is taken off when the mold is started or can be removed with a gentle wipe. However, this kind of mold is expensive and easy to damage, and most rubber mold products need to be trimmed after vulcanization. For products with high precision requirements, manual wrapping has high labor intensity, low efficiency and low pass rate. Mechanical dressing mainly includes punching, grinding wheel dressing and round knife dressing, which is suitable for specific products that do not require high precision. During the maintenance process, the products with poor appearance are picked out manually, and the appearance of poor appearance mainly includes raw edge, dirty mold, immature, lack of materials, foaming and so on. Finally, the products are packaged and shipped after passing the inspection.
The production process of rubber products is a complex process, involving the close cooperation of many links. In order to produce high quality rubber products, every step needs to be carefully operated and strictly controlled. The specific process may vary according to different types of rubber products and regional requirements. In actual production, enterprises will adjust and improve the process according to their actual conditions to improve product quality and production efficiency.
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