Injection molding of engineering rubber components: a comparison between experimental results and numerical simulation

The present paper reports and discusses the results of a 3D finite element simulation of the injection molding process of a rubber component, including the stages of the mold filling dynamics and material curing, using the “Reactive Molding” module of the Moldflow 6.2 CAE software. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and a capillary rheometer are employed to characterize the rubber material in order to obtain appropriate curing reaction and viscosity models, respectively. The model parameters so obtained are used to simulate the injection molding process for an engineering rubber component with a complex geometry having a thickness distribution that ranges from 1.5 mm to 20 mm. The computations are found in good agreement with the experimental results, indicating that reliable information on material viscosity and curing kinetic play a key role for well-founded predictions.