Rubber & Silicone Molding - We Handle All Quantities

TEAM Rapid offers rubber injection molding, compression molding, and liquid silicone rubber molding to meet your specific projects.

Rubber Injection Molding 

Rubber injection molding is a branch of injection molding. Rubber is the primary injection molding material for this process. The commonly used rubbers include TPE, TPU, TPV, TPR, etc., which can be in different brands and hardness depending on your project requirements. This molding method is generally the same as traditional injection mold tooling. The only difference is the material -- rubber, which is soft plastic. The tooling structure can be simplified, even with no ejection system. As a professional rubber injection mold maker, TEAM Rapid offers high-volume and low-volume rubber molding. The undercuts usually release by manual insert for the low-volume rubber molding parts. This can deeply simplify the parting lines and ejection system. The key point is how to set the parting lines skillfully to reduce flashes on rubber molded parts.

FAQ about Rubber Injection Molding & Silicone Injection Molding

1. Why temperature is so important for rubber molding?

Injection molding rubber or injection molding silicone is sensitive to temperature. Generally speaking, the increased molding temperature usually reduces the condensation of plastic, making the molten materials flow and fill the cavities easily, resulting in the rubber injection molded parts with better quality surfaces and greater part weight. On the other hand, increasing mold temperature may lead to injection rubber modified and decreased tensile strength of the rubber molded parts. For injection molding, TEAM Rapid strictly follows the material data sheet to mold the rubber parts. We know the importance of mold temperatures.

2. How to do custom rubber mold parts?

As mentioned above, rubber injection molding is one kind of injection molding. Firstly, we need to build a mold. Secondly, we process the injection molding process. The cycle of rubber injection molding is generally the same as traditional plastic injection molding, which includes mold closing, injection, cooling, plasticizing the resin, ejection, removing the gate and package, etc. The general injection molding machine is OK for rubber molding. If you need better configuration, ask the rubber injection molding manufacturers to help with these. For more details, or if you have projects needing rubber molding, please get in touch with us.

Silicone Compression Molding 

It is a molding process that places a rubber/silicone(solid) onto an open, heated mold cavity, then closes and compresses it to have the material fully contact all areas of the mold to form the shape of the cavity. Silicone compression molding vs. injection molding? Hydraulic press compression molding is similar to injection molding but differs in the injection process.

Compression Molding Materials

Thermoplastic materials are commonly used in hydraulic press compression molding. At TEAM Rapid, we offer not only compression mold making but also a series of molding materials selection. The materials include:

- Silicone

- EPDM

- Urethane

- Polyurethane (PU)

- Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)

- High-density Polyethylene (HDPE)

FAQ about Silicone Compression Molding

What is Compression Molding?

You can take the picture below of our hydraulic press compression molding process. The major molding steps are:

A: Build a mold. The mold is usually two-plated. The structure is closed and open and might involve an insert structure.

B: Place the molding material (mixed with curing agent) into the heated and open cavity.

C: Close the mold. The material fully contacts all areas of the mold cavity when under compression molding press.

D: Heating the mold through a compression molding machine to a certain temperature to make molding rubber cured.

E: Take out the molding, then remove the overflows and package.

Are you looking for compression molding caps or some other custom parts? Finding suppliers who do compression molding near me is good, but you can also try the rapid manufacturing services from overseas manufacturers such as TEAM Rapid. We offer high-quality parts at fast delivery but at a low cost!

Liquid Silicone Rubber Molding 

Liquid Silicone Rubber Molding When you are looking for silicone rubber liquid mold and silicone rubber parts in high precision, Liquid silicone rubber injection molding is the best solution for you! LSR parts are used widely in a range of different industries. Their good properties, such as steam resistance, low compression set, conductivity, oil and heat resistance, etc., allow them to perform excellently in working as the gasket, keyboard, touchpad, long-term durability components, etc. Also, liquid silicone rubber for mold-making is OK! 

Conclusion

Rubber injection molding, compression molding, liquid silicone rubber molding, and silicone injection molding, which one is the best solution for your project? Contact our team at [email protected] to learn more. Our experienced sales engineers will support you in choosing the best solution to make high-quality silicone rubber parts at a low cost.