Rubber Mixing Process
This process leads the former step, wherein the blending of rubber materials is executed for the fitting compound and formulation of the downstream process application. Separate lines are leveraged for FKM (Viton) and other Elastomers to attain the required consistency.
Although, Elastomers use for the composite part are, as a rule, also the standard materials that are used for general moulded components in dependence on the application conditions. Technical Compounds for challenging applications is a strength attributed to years of experience in various fields.
Two types of rubber mixing processes are used at Harkesh. We are currently using in excess of 75 compound formulations and the process of development of new ones as per customer requirements is continuously on-going. Technical assistance with respect to compound development, production and testing is taken as per customer needs. The Synthetic Rubber elastomer, fillers like carbon black and other chemicals as per the formulation are weighed with a computer aided semi-automatic weighing system.
The mixing is done at controlled temperature. The next step is done after a set ageing time in which the mass of raw compound is again rolled with curing agents (accelerators). This compound is then moved through rollers to give sheets of desired thickness.
The second mixing process, which is manual, is done on open type roller mills and is mainly used for small quantities or coloured compounds.
The compound is then tested in the laboratory for various routine type tests depending on the specifications. A few of examples are hardness tests, rheological tests, compression set tests, ageing tests in air and various other media.
On successful completion of the tests the compound is issued to the next process.
