Every rubber part tied to mould and cure.

A rubber part leaves a hot mould with flash on its parting line and a cavity number moulded into its face. Behind it sit an EPDM or nitrile compound lot, a preform cut to weight, a cure time and, for a mount, a steel insert coated with bonding agent. Customers ask for all of it later.

Industrial rubber parts manufacturer software keeps those items on one job, so presses, moulds and the inspection bench read the same part record. Share your requirements, and one bush is traced from the mixing mill to the carton.

A customer releases a monthly schedule for gaskets, bushes, diaphragms and engine mounts, and the planner converts it into press runs by mould. A sixteen cavity tool cannot be moved lightly, so the planner also checks mixed compound stock against the rheometer release before any run is fixed on the board. Preforms are cut from strip or extruded to a set weight, weighed on the bench and loaded into the cavity. For bonded parts, a steel insert goes in first, after it has been grit blasted, degreased, primed with bonding agent and left to dry on a rack.

The press operator sets platen temperature and cure time, closes the tool and unloads the shot, and trimming follows by hand knife, by tumbling or by cryogenic deflashing. At the bench the inspector reads Shore A hardness, checks the bore against a go and no-go gauge and tears a bonded sample to see where it fails. Parts are counted into cartons. Mounts get a label.