O-rings are a critical component of equipment, machinery, and a variety of other applications. Shaped like a donut, the O-Ring can plays a significant role in industries across the globe. Most often, they are made from elastomers. They are designed to prevent fluid and gas from leaking around mating surfaces. Leakage on mating surfaces can cause serious damage and disrupt machining processes. That's why O-Rings are vitally important as they can effectively prevent this from happening. O-Rings can be made using a variety of different manufacturing processes, as you can see below.
Four Common Ways O-Rings are Manufactured
O-rings are an integral part of many applications as they are vital in maintaining the function and purpose of them.
- Compression Molding (Transfer Molding): Compression molding is a highly efficient and cost effective technique. Compression molding uses heat and pressure to create a three-dimensional O-ring. The O-ring pressure molding manufacturing process begins by injecting preheated material into a mold cavity. This is often rubber, but can be other materials. Once the material is injected into the mold cavity, a fitted plug is used to close the cavity. The pressure is increased in the mold which allows the material to take shape.
- Transfer Molding: Transfer molding is a middle ground between compression and injection molding. In the transfer process, material is forced into the mold, while the mold is closed resulting in higher dimensional tolerances and less environmental impact. Uniform pressure is used to completely fill the mold. Because transfer molding uses a closed mold cavity, the molding is able to create higher pressure. This makes the finished product thicker and often provides more consistent results.
- Injection Molding: Injection molding is an effective manufacturing process that can be used to create O-rings. The process involves injecting raw material into a mold cavity, usually in the form of pellets. The pellets are then heated and become liquified, making them easily moldable once in the mold cavity.
- Spliced and Vulcanized Extrusions (cord): Another process used for the manufacture of extruded cord is spliced vulcanization that does not use a die to create O-rings. Spliced vulcanized O-rings are made from extruded cord that is cut and bonded. To form a spliced and vulcanized O-ring, the extruded cord is cut to the proper length after which the cut ends are joined using a bonding agent. The bonded and joined ends are placed in a high temperature mold to form a molecular bond at the joint.
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