Abstract
Abstract The curing of liquid silicone rubber (LSR) in an injection mold was studied using a two-pronged attack. First, a reaction kinetic model of LSR polymerization was derived from the hydrosilation mechanism. The model was tested with reaction kinetics of different rubber formulations with varying concentrations of catalyst and inhibitor. It was found that inhibitor consumption follows a zero-order kinetic model, and the subsequent polymerization kinetics are first order in vinyl concentration and concentration of available catalyst. Then this kinetic model was applied to a heat transfer and curing analysis which predicts gel time in a cavity of known thickness and mold temperature. Because silicone rubber has a low heat of cure, reaction exotherm was neglected in the analysis. The gel conversion was predicted using the recursive method, and thermal diffusivity was determined by transient temperature measurements in a cured slab. The predicted gel times were in good agreement with experimental demolding data. Because of its simplicity and accuracy, this analysis can be a useful tool for formulation optimization and mold-temperature selection.
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