Rubber Mouldings

Rubber can be moulded using a variety of moulding processes. Valley Rubber is able to process our rubber compounds using a number of different moulding techniques. We use compression moulding, injection moulding, transfer moulding and dual or co-moulding to make our rubber components.

Compression Rubber Mouldings

Compression Moulding is one of the simplest and most cost effective ways to manufacture rubber moulded components. Whilst this form of rubber moulding is not recommended for intricate parts it is the most cost effective solution of manufacturing lower volumes of parts.
Typically the pre heated billet or ‘Blank’ is pre-weighed and then placed into the opened mould cavity, the mould is then closed and constant pressure and heat is applied throughout the cycle until the raw material is cured.
Usually the tooling is relatively simple and the lowest cost of the process options.
Valley has 11 presses in a variety of sizes suitable for this type of work

Transfer Rubber Mouldings

Transfer Moulding is similar to compression moulding however the material is injected into the cavity of the tool from a pot using the compression pressure of the press. Compared to simple compression moulding, transfer is preferred for thick or large parts as the material is hot at the start of the moulding cycle. This results in shorter cure times and a more even cure throughout the article
The presses used for compression moulding are also used for transfer moulding 

Injection Rubber Mouldings

In the injection moulding process the temperature of the ingoing material is set by the machinery and the whole process can be more closely defined by the machine itself. Because of this the temperature of the platens is usually higher and the cure time shorter than compression moulding. This enables more efficient manufacture of high volume parts but the tooling is more complex and inherently more expensive.
Valley has 4 injection presses of various sizes.

Maintenance

All the presses and equipment at Valley are subject to both routine and predictive maintenance to ensure reliable performance and delivery to dates.

Engineering And Prototypes

Our many years of rubber moulding design and manufacturing experience has given us the advantage and we often work closely with our customers to achieve their design objectives. Our engineers will be able to offer you advice, process and design to ensure the result is the most cost effective and efficient production.

Rubber Moulding Summary

- Compression Rubber Moulding

• Can produce small or large parts

• Simply and relatively low cost tooling

• Generally slowest output rates

- Transfer Rubber Moulding

• Better consistency than compression especially for large parts

• Reduced cure times

• Slight cost increase in tooling

• Provides clean material into the mould and used for rubber to metal bonding

- Injection Rubber Moulding

• Tends to be used for small and medium sized parts because on machine volume restrictions

• Quickest cycle times

• Best control of cure

• Best control of outputs

• Best for high volumes

• Highest tooling cost