Why is silicone replication suitable for small-scale production?
For many product manufacturers, they often encounter the problem of not being sure if their products are well received in the market. They want to produce small batches of products, but do not have good processing methods because open mold injection molding is suitable for large-scale production. If it is only used to produce a small number of products, it is not cost-effective and the mold cost is too expensive. New 3D printing processing is not suitable for direct industrial products due to the difficulty in meeting both product performance and appearance requirements. Currently, the commonly used process is silicone replica production. So why is silicone replica suitable for small-scale production?
Silicone replication, also known as vacuum injection molding or vacuum replication, requires the use of silicone molds. It refers to the process of defoaming, stirring, preheating, injection molding of castables under vacuum conditions, and secondary curing molding in a constant temperature box of 60 ℃ -80 ℃ for 2-3 hours. Silicone replica products can meet the strength and hardness requirements of raw materials such as ABS, and can also be color coded according to customer requirements. So it is suitable for small batch production of plastic parts in the product development process, and the produced plastic parts are close to the product performance of open mold injection molding.
Moreover, due to the use of silicone molds for processing, the cost of silicone molds is much lower than that of steel molds for injection molding, which greatly saves mold costs. One silicone mold can produce 50 to 100 products, which is usually the quantity for small batches, so it can be produced at low cost.
Which products are suitable for vacuum molding? Mainly personalized products with low demand, complex structures, and traditional steel molds that are not cost-effective, such as automotive parts, robots, medical equipment, and 3C electronic products.