Rubber blank – Pre-product for the manufacture of moulded rubber parts

What is a rubber blank?

A rubber blank is a prefabricated, still unprocessed piece of rubber compound, which serves as the starting material for the production of Moulded rubber parts, seals or technical assemblies. The blank is an intermediate product and already possesses the compound formulation matched to the final application, consisting of base polymer, fillers, plasticisers, crosslinking chemicals and further additives, but has not yet been brought into its final form or vulcanised.

As well as manufacturing classic moulded parts, rubber blanks also serve as a basis for Rubber composite parts how Metal-rubber composite parts, ..., in which the rubber compound is specifically bonded to metallic supports or other materials to meet the highest mechanical requirements.

What are the properties of rubber blanks?

• Mouldable starting point for various manufacturing processes such as Injection moulding, Compression Molding or Transfer Molding
• Individually adjusted material properties through targeted Compound-Composition
• Customisable geometry (sheets, blocks, strips, profile sections) for the respective production process
• Wide range of material options - depending on the application, e.g. NBR for oil resistance, EPDM for weather resistance or FKM for high temperature resistance
• Limited shelf life depending on base polymer and compound structure

Wo werden Gummirohlinge angewendet?

In industrial production, rubber blanks are processed either manually or automatically. The goods leave the mixing plant as an intermediate product either in larger formats or already prefabricated in the exact size for later processing into moulded parts. For processing on Injection moulding systems the raw material is in the form of continuous strips treated with talcum as a release agent.

In the Series production rubber blanks are preheated, placed in the mould and heated under pressure and temperature. vulcanised. This process gives them their final shape and elastic and mechanical properties.