Variety of Applications
Utilized for clinical trials, product testing, alpha/beta builds, prototype and end-use parts.
Less Expensive Molding
Faster and much less expensive to build, as compared to metal injection molds.
Fast Turnaround
Build the RTV mold and start producing high-quality prototype or production parts in under one week.
Why choose Urethane Casted Parts?
Injection molds can be complex to design and very expensive to produce. Depending on complexity, producing injection molds take weeks and even months. Room temperature vulcanization (RTV) molding can be an ideal alternative solution for producing production quality parts, from the very small to very large, and from the very simple to very complex.
RTV molding is a rapid tooling process for creating production-quality parts with rubber molds. Production runs that do not justify the cost of hard tooling can often be economically manufactured with RTV molds.
The RTV molding process uses liquid urethane plastics that closely mimic the properties of injection-molded plastics. Parts can be made in a very wide range of properties, from very rigid to very flexible, with a full range of custom colors that can be blended to match your specifications.
RTV Mold / Urethane Casting Process
Master Pattern
To produce RTV molds for the urethane casting process, a highly accurate master pattern is made with rapid prototyping or CNC.
The desired surface texture is applied to the pattern by the finishing team. The texture will be exactly replicated in the production cast parts.
Building the Mold
The RTV tool maker builds a box around the master pattern. After gates, sprues, and parting lines are added to the pattern, liquid silicone rubber is poured around the pattern.
After the mold is allowed to cure overnight it is cut open and the master pattern is removed. The mold is then ready to be filled with urethane, silicone, or another custom-blended material. Custom colors will be cast-in, exactly matching the customer specifications.
Molded and Post Processed
The urethane material is cast (injected) into the mold under pressure or vacuum and allowed to cure. Cast parts perfectly match the original pattern when they are removed from the mold.
The cast urethane process offers an extremely wide range of material, color, and texture options. Urethane cast parts can also be clear, color-matched, painted (including EMI shielding), have installed inserts, and custom-finished.
Example Parts
Example low-mid volume production of high quality, precise, and consistent parts that can be molded from flexible, rigid or foam materials, pick on the images below to enlarge:
RTV Molding and Urethane Casting Benefits
Very low tooling cost
Fast delivery of first production parts
Bridge-tooling for production before injection molds are built
Superior material properties
RTV Molding and Urethane Casting Applications
Ideal for over-molded designs
Limited production runs
FR-rated medical enclosures
Variety of colors
Case Study
The Titan Medical Patient Cart
When Ximedica was asked by Titan Medical to design and deliver three complete engineering verification units of their SPORT™ Surgical System patient cart, they contacted TriMech.
