What Are the Molding Processes of Liquid Silicone Rubber?

Liquid silicone is an environmentally friendly material that has been favored, accepted, and widely used in various industries due to its superior performance, and has produced various unique products. So far, the common molding processes for silicone products are as follows.

Liquid Silicone Molding Process

Extrusion Process

Similar to toothpaste, the product has been vulcanized into a strip under the action of force and temperature, and the product part can be different, such as rectangular, circular, etc.

Two Epoxy Resin Molding Processes

The required material for this process is liquid silicone, which is installed in an injector-like device. The raw materials are dropped onto the mold by pneumatic and manual operations, and then heated and vulcanized. It is a manual processing with low productivity. The advantage is that the product can be adjusted to various colors according to customer requirements, such as multi-colored silicone bracelets, and silicone phone cases with various colors and patterns.

Three Cure Hot Press Molding Process

This process uses the temperature and pressure of the hydraulic press to sulfurize the raw materials used in the product through the mold, and has relatively low costs and high production yields. This is a widely used process.

Four Liquid Injection Molding Process

This process requires a silicone injection molding machine and a pressure machine. The required raw material is viscous, divided into two groups. The working principle is to press the two groups of raw materials into the injection molding machine barrel in a ratio of 1:1 by a foot press. Then, the mixed raw material is injected into the mold cavity of the hot mold through the nozzle. The molding temperature of this process is relatively low, the production yield is high, and it is easy to automate production, but the cost of raw materials is several times higher than that of general solid silicone raw materials.

Application Field of Liquid Silicone in Medical Industry

Liquid silicone medical accessories have many unique properties, such as good physiological inertia, resistance to body fluid corrosion, resistance to aging under harsh environmental conditions, no inflammation on human tissue, etc. Therefore, they are widely used in the medical field. Among the many available medical polymer materials, silicone rubber dominates in terms of quantity and type.

Liquid organic silicone medical auxiliary materials can be formed by ordinary rubber processing methods, such as extrusion, impregnation, injection or molding, although the properties of silicone rubber products depend on the silicone rubber raw materials or production methods used by the manufacturer. In practical applications, the performance of medical silicone rubber products must reach a certain level to ensure safety and effectiveness during use. In the past few decades, the application of medical silicone rubber products has made significant progress. As a medical device industry, the performance of medical silicone rubber products, especially their application in clinical medicine, is becoming more and more extensive.

With the improvement of people's living standards and the enhancement of health awareness, the use of medical silicone rubber products will increase. Liquid silicone rubber medical accessories have become the most widely used medical polymer material due to their excellent performance. With the development of the organic silicone industry, medical silicone rubber products will form a formidable market, and silicone rubber will play a greater role in the medical field.