Elastomer compound design for injection molding is a complex balance of end-use properties, product specifications, chemistry, and processing characteristics. Careful consideration must be given to all variables, such as the physical form of the compound, polymer type, cure system, cycle time, and cost considerations, to name a few.
The compounder, whether in-house or a custom compounder, should be consulted as early as possible during the process design. A joint effort, including the developer of the tooling, process engineers, and compound chemists is ideal.