Rubber Injection Molding

Rubber Injection Molding

The Custom Rubber Injection Molding Experts

With over thirty years of experience in rubber injection molding, Qualiform offers competitive pricing paired with unmatched product quality and service. As a leading provider of rubber injection molding to OEMs across the US, Qualiform Rubber Molding is trusted for our expertise in material properties, rubber compound selection, design consultation, and complex part molding.

Certified to ISO 9001:2015, Qualiform is experienced in meeting the strictest quality standards, ensuring that our products and services consistently exceed expectations. OEMs nationwide rely on our commitment to excellence and precision in every project.

Rubber Injection Molding

Rubber injection molding is used to develop both solid rubber parts and rubber-to-metal bonded products.  Natural and synthetic rubber compounds can provide a wide variety of properties that solve problems from seals or gaskets, noise and vibration isolation, abrasion and impact resistance, and chemical/corrosion resistance.  Rubber injection molding is ideally suited for mid-to-high-volume production and where tight tolerances, part consistency, or over-molding are required.  In addition, rubber injection molding works well with rubber compounds that have faster cure times.  This is a process that can be fully automated.

The Rubber Injection Molding Process

History

Rubber injection molding was first used in the mid-1960s and was based on the plastic injection molding process.  The key difference between plastic and rubber injection molding is that rubber requires significantly higher pressure to cure the rubber thus leading to longer cure times.

Starting with Tooling

The process starts with the tooling, a rubber injection mold typically with multiple cavities.  The mold consists of a nozzle plate, runner plate, cavity plate, and a base plate with a post-molding ejector system.  The rubber compounds and additives are mixed to create rubber stock.  The stock is formed into continuous strips of uncured rubber stock approximately 1.25″ wide & .375″.

From the Hopper to the Runner Plate

The continuous strip is automatically fed from a hopper into the injection molding machine into a heated barrel, conveyance channel, which softens, plasticizes the rubber.  The stock is then pushed by a large auger, a screw-type plunger, through the injection nozzle. After flowing into the nozzle plate, the rubber is routed through the runner plate, through the gates, and then into the mold cavities.

Vulcanizing

When the cavities have been filled the heated mold is kept closed under pressure. The temperature and pressure activate the cure of the rubber compound, vulcanizing it.  Once the rubber reaches and required level of cure, it is allowed to cool and reach a solid state within the mold. The molds open and parts are removed or ejected and ready for the next cycle.

Encapsulating

In cases where rubber injection molding is used to encapsulate metal components with rubber or bond rubber to metal, the components are loaded, either by hand or using a loading fixture, into the heated mold cavities. The mold is then closed and the injection molding cycle can begin. After curing is completed, the mold is opened and parts are removed. The cured rubber in the runner is removed, cured rubber in the injection nozzle is purged, and the mold cavities are cleaned in preparation for the next molding cycle.

Rubber Molding Capabilities

Different molding processes have different strengths.  That’s why Qualiform offers quality custom rubber compression molding, custom transfer molding, custom rubber injection molding, and rubber to metal bonding.  Our experts help you match the best process to your project.

About

For over 30 years, Qualiform Rubber Molding has provided full-service manufacturing and quality rubber products to our customers.  With reputable and dependable rubber products, our manufacturing capabilities meet the needs necessitated by the transportation, medical, electrical, plumbing, industrial, appliance, and aerospace industries.

Why Qualiform for your Rubber Injection Molding?

With unparalleled experience, Qualiform is the top U.S. rubber molder for custom rubber products.  At Qualiform, we know that quality custom rubber products often require special compounds and present unique design and molding challenges.  Our team of problem-solving, experts is well-equipped to handle all aspects of rubber molding and rubber to metal bonding with the utmost regards to their customers.

As the leading supplier of rubber molding services, compression molding, transfer molding, rubber to metal bonding, and rubber injection molding, we at Qualiform understand the importance of a fast turnaround.  We are committed to running a 3-shift, 24-hour production facility for the quickest possible turnaround.

Rubber Molding Company Certifications

As a certified ISO 9001 company, we are dedicated to producing high-quality custom rubber molded products while taking the necessary steps to understand your project needs and ensure that they meet your full satisfaction.  Qualiform is committed to implementing an effective quality assurance program that oversees, evaluates, and documents every aspect of our process, assuring top-notch quality with every product and service that we provide to our customers.

Competitive Pricing

Qualiform is committed to our customers, our environment, and our country. The competitive pricing that Qualiform offers our customers is a result of evaluating every aspect required to produce the part.  Through research and development, our team at Qualiform analyzes the entire project scope to provide our customers with the best solution at the best price.

Green initiatives are taken by using repurposed rubber as often as we can.  In turn, we are able to reduce costs and limit the amount of waste going into landfills.

As an American-owned company that works solely with American-Made products, Qualiform sources all of our tooling from within the United States.  This allows faster lead times and faster responses to customer design changes.