We use rubber for so many things in the modern world. From the wiper blades on cars to the seals in a nuclear reactor or even on our feet as boots you can usually find rubber doing a decent job somewhere and for some very useful purpose. How do we get this stuff to get into the shapes we need it to? One way is by Rubber Injection moulding.
How does Rubber Injection moulding work? It’s actually quite a simple process. Firstly a large long piece of rubber, very much like ribbon is fed into a chamber where it is heated up so that it melts or rather it becomes like molten plastic. Once it is in this melted state it is ready to be molded.
Here comes the injection part. At one end of the proces is the mold ready set into whatever shape the rubber needs to be. The melted rubber is injected into the mold where it is then taken through a series of pressure and temperature changes and the addition of additives. This vulcanises the rubber making it rock hard.
This is quite simplfied that is pretty much all there is to it.