It is a pretty sure bet that whatever you do in life you will have had to use something that needed rubber. For the most part you probably don’t even notice it. It sits quietly working away as a seal here or a valve there just generally doing it’s job. However it is quite a process to make those valves and seals plus other bits of machinery that might need them. What exactly is the process for forming rubber into those shapes? One of the most popular is Rubber Injection Moulding.
What is the process for rubber injection moulding? Well, it is a rather interesting process. Rubber needs to be a liquid before it is moldable and so the first thing that needs to happen is that the rubber is heated up to such a degree that it returns to its molten form. Once it is in this state as long as you’ve got the mold at the other end correct for your purpose then you are ready to inject it into the mold.
The molten rubber is injected into the mold so that it fills every crevice and part of it. After that the next stage is to get it to cool down. It is now a case of exposing the rubber to some high pressures and applying some additives to create the process of vulcanisation which makes it firm.