Rubber Manufacturing

Manufacturing products made from rubber materials often requires adjustments to pressure and vacuum. Products from tires to hoses to rubber bands may need different settings at different stages of production.

Learn more about the many tire manufacturing applications Proportion-Air excels in.

Tube/Hose Extrusion

During manufacturing, rubber material is poured into a mold where you apply pressure to push the material into the mold while it’s being heated. As it passes out of the heat range, water is often used to control the temperature.

Rubber requires a low pressure to conform to the shape of a mold and forcing it to adhere. As it comes out of the tube, pressure is applied in a vacuum as well as to the outside to create and calibrate the wall thickness of the product.

Proportion-Air’s closed loop technology provides the needed adjustments to air pressure. This is true both for shaping the rubber and the water pressure to cool the mold and control temperature. Our technology is accurate, adjustable and repeatable.

Case In Point

One company was using a complicated back pressure concept that limited the flow to the back pressure regulator. They were using shop air and asked us to upgrade their flow control back pressure regulator system for low pressure tube extrusion. Instead of undertaking the expense of upgrading their current concept, we proposed a pressure reducing concept. This solution would use one device, not three or four. With fewer moving parts, it was streamlined, faster and output a better product without creating the tube bulges they were currently experiencing. This was a workable solution because our device works even with very low pressure levels (e.g. two inches of water column).

Multiple Applications

Closed-loop technology from Proportion-Air can provide the needed adjustments and monitoring for many applications:

• Adjusting levels of saturated steam used in curing rubber materials.

We can simplify how you control your steam temperature. The complicated PID loops found in other temperature control systems are not necessary because our system simplifies how you control your steam temperature. This is because we understand the relationship between temperature and pressure. Specifically, the temperature of saturated steam is directly proportional to the pressure.

• Adjusting the speed of rubber material passing through a heating apparatus when manufacturing medical tubes.
• Adjusting release spray, which keeps finished rubber products from sticking to molds.
• Correcting tension on rolled rubber materials.
• Controlling the level of a vacuum in a cooling chamber to maintain and correct wall thickness.