MAINTAIN QUALITY, CUT DOWN PRODUCTION COSTS

Rubber technical parts keep ’serving’ industrial and medical applications, but the economic difficulties call for much reduced production costs of any product. Troubled car industry –for instance– is developing small / low cost cars, thus creating a new market niche requiring reliable but unexpensive components. Similar steps taken by other activities ?
This paper reviews new rubber moulding approaches - based on well known techniques-  to reduce production costs of rubber technical parts, but maintaining ‘quality‘:
A– ‘twin drop‘ cold runner block feeding contemporarily two thin film injection moulds with any rubber compound sent by a one nozzle press. Figures 1) and 2) BENEFITS: cut down rubber waste; higher productivity;
B– injection transfer cold pot with tiny nozzles individually cooled down to the tip. Through their small orifices any rubber compound from any injection press is fed  near the mould cavities or on them. BENEFITS: cut down rubber waste ; reduced finishing costs . Figures 3) and 4).
C– ‘inserted‘ injection mould: the rubber compound is injected at the bottom of each cavity, through a small orifice, as per figure 5). BENEFITS: compound saving and high quality  parts, provided minute injection mark on the moulded part back is acceptable.
D– valve gated cold runner block system (... hydraulically operated valves, electronics and press interface) to inject into the mould cavities the exact rubber amount to fill them. Are OK any rubber compound, any ‘one nozzle press‘ of suitable capacity, any valve rubber feed sequence. No calibration switching to moulds of different thickness. Figures 6) and 7). BENEFITS: no flash parts. Rubber compound saving.
Equipment A) to D) , commercially available, is routinely used in Europe.
Purpose of this paper is showing how these approaches –‘personalised’ – meet some  new, demanding requirements.