Create Your Own Designs with Silicone Moulding
Silicones are synthetic compounds which have a variety of uses. From household products to medical products at every place they have an important role. There are various products made of silicone we use in our day to day life, but the question is, what is the procedure behind it? The answer is Silicone moulding. It is a process of moulding silicone in molds and cast a structure.
Silicone moulding can be used in various fields from jewelry designing to medication technology and sculpture making. There are many materials which can be used for silicone moulding. Gaskets and seals made up of silicone rubber prevent leakage of gas or rubber. Due to this property they are widely used in electrical assembly. Silicone rubber can easily cast into any shape and color which makes it more suitable to use.
Silicone rubber is the best ingredient in making resin molds. There is a proper justification to it. The Silicone rubber can replicate meticulous facet. They have such flexibility that it makes remolding process very easy. Resin craftsmen who are skilled to make jewelry, use silicone rubber to design their molds. Silicone rubber due to its inflammable nature is together used with an additive material in aerospace to wrap wires. It acts as a high electric insulator. Besides this if you are thinking about creating some realistic shape or formation liquid mold rubber is highly preferred.
There are many techniques used in Silicone rubber moulding. Compression moulding, Transfer molding and Liquid silicone injection moulding are few of them. All the techniques have their advantages and disadvantages. But the most widely used technique is Injection moulding as it takes less time and quick molds can be prepared. In case of "Injection moulding" liquid silicone rubber is used and is passed through the injection. The liquid silicone consist of two parts both are liquid, but the difference is one part contains platinum as catalyst. Presence of the catalyst speed up the process and consumes less time which results in low production cost of the parts made by this process.
In compression moulding the parts are cast by compressing or squeezing rubber between two plates. In this process heat and pressure is used for curing. Low as well as high volume production can be done by this process as it has the advantage of low setup costs. Transfer moulding includes the transfer of rubber from a transfer vessel to the mold with the help of a piston. Advantage of this type is that products made are cheaper then compression moulding. There are numbers of material which can be used in Silicone rubber moulding. The easily available material is silicone putty. But if molds to be used in baking or kitchen products are to be made then special food grade silicone putty should be used. Other material which can be used is Precious metal clay or PMC, which is widely used in jewelry designing. It is simple to use as binding material containing metal powder is mixed with PMC. Fire is used to burn the binding material and metal obtain given shape.