What rubber products are suitable for hydraulic vulcanizing presses?

A hydraulic vulcanizer is a common and critical piece of rubber product molding equipment. It primarily uses hydraulic pressure to vulcanize and mold the rubber raw material within a heated mold under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions. Vulcanization is one of the most critical steps in rubber processing, directly affecting the product's elasticity, strength, wear resistance, and sealing properties. Therefore, hydraulic vulcanizers are widely used in the manufacture of various rubber products, covering a wide range of sectors, including industry, automotive, transportation, medical, and daily necessities.
This article systematically explains the types of rubber products suitable for hydraulic vulcanizers and provides a detailed analysis of their compatibility and advantages based on product form, application industries, and process requirements.

Small Sealing Products
1. Rubber Sealing Rings (O-Rings, Y-Rings, etc.)
Hydraulic vulcanizers are widely used to manufacture various small sealing rings, particularly common seals such as O-rings, Y-Rings, V-Rings, and rectangular rings. These products are generally small in size and simple in shape and structure, requiring high dimensional accuracy and surface quality during production. Hydraulic vulcanizers provide stable temperature and pressure conditions, resulting in dense, sharp-edged, and uniformly sized products. They are particularly suitable for high-volume, high-precision seal manufacturing.
2. Flange gaskets and frame oil seals
These products are often used in mechanical joints, sealing against oil, water, and air. Hydraulic vulcanizers achieve high mold clamping force and long-term, stable pressure retention, ensuring that the rubber completely fills the mold cavity and expel gases. This helps prevent internal bubbles and uncured areas, improving the overall quality of the seal.

Medium-sized engineering rubber products
1. Shock absorbers, vibration dampers, and rubber bearings
Hydraulic vulcanizers are suitable for producing various shock-absorbing and anti-seismic products, such as rubber bearings for railways, bridges, and high-rise building foundations, or rubber pads for the bases of mechanical equipment. These products are generally large, thick, and rigid, requiring extremely high clamping force. Large-tonnage hydraulic vulcanizers (e.g., over 300 tons) are often required to ensure tight mold closure and uniform molding. These products require high elasticity and durability under load. Hydraulic vulcanizers provide a continuous and uniform temperature field, enabling the rubber to fully crosslink, ensuring mechanical properties and longevity.
2. Conveyor Belt Joints and Industrial Track Products
In conveyor belt production, hydraulic vulcanizers are often used for hot vulcanization joints, joining the belts together through heat and pressure to restore their overall strength. This process places extremely high demands on the temperature control system and mold heating platen uniformity, and hydraulic vulcanizers are ideal for this type of vulcanization connection under stable pressure and temperature.

Automotive Rubber Parts
1. Automotive Oil Seals, Dust Covers, and Weatherstrips
Automotive rubber products are diverse, requiring a large number of rubber components from engine systems to chassis structures. Hydraulic vulcanizers can precisely control pressure, temperature, and time, adapting to different rubber material formulations, ensuring products with excellent high-temperature resistance, oil resistance, wear resistance, and aging resistance.
Dust covers and bellows have relatively complex structures, requiring flexible mold opening and closing and smooth exhaust. The multi-stage pressurization and multi-point exhaust functions of hydraulic vulcanizers effectively meet these molding requirements.
2. Suspension System Rubber Bushings and Engine Support Blocks
Commonly used rubber bushings, bushings, and support blocks in automotive shock absorber systems are mostly metal-rubber composites. Hydraulic vulcanizers can achieve a strong bond between rubber and metal components through mold pre-positioning and pressure retention, enhancing the product's integrated strength and durability.

Household and Consumer Rubber Products
1. Rubber Handles, Shoe Soles, and Sports Equipment Components
Hydraulic vulcanizers are commonly used to manufacture rubber components for household and consumer products, such as sports equipment handles, yoga mat corners, rubber slipper soles, and rubber tension bands. These products often have complex shapes and require certain elasticity. Hydraulic vulcanizers ensure a clean appearance and sharp edges, meeting the dual demands of aesthetics and practicality.
2. Kitchen Silicone Products (such as molds and sealing caps)
Although the molding temperature and process for silicone differ slightly, hydraulic vulcanizers can be used to manufacture high-temperature vulcanized silicone products with appropriate adjustments (for example, controlling the heating temperature between 170°C and 200°C). Hydraulic vulcanizers enable clean production and are particularly suitable for molding food-grade and medical-grade silicone products.

Specialty Rubber Products
1. High-Temperature Seals and Fluororubber Products
Fluororubber products used in high-temperature, high-pressure, and highly corrosive environments, such as chemical seals and aerospace gaskets, require extremely high heating uniformity and pressure stability. The hydraulic vulcanizer's high-precision temperature control system and long-lasting pressure retention ensure that the vulcanization of these rubbers meets design requirements, avoiding performance degradation caused by incomplete vulcanization.

2.Conductive Rubber and Flame-Retardant Rubber Products
Conductive rubber, antistatic rubber, and flame-retardant rubber are used in specialized industries such as the electronics and military industries. These rubbers are highly sensitive to temperature control. Excessive vulcanization temperature deviations can lead to a loss of conductivity or a reduction in flame retardancy. Hydraulic vulcanizers provide precise temperature and time control to ensure the functionality of these specialized rubber formulations is maintained.

Medical and Cleanroom Rubber Products
Medical rubber products such as tourniquets, IV tube plugs, and medical-grade gaskets require extremely high cleanliness levels in both the production environment and the finished product. Hydraulic vulcanizers are often enclosed, and some models are equipped with dust-free devices, making them suitable for use in cleanrooms and meeting medical standards.
At the same time, medical products have stringent batch-to-batch consistency requirements. The hydraulic vulcanizer's programmable control system and intelligent operating interface help achieve standardized, streamlined production and reduce human error.

Large, One-Piece Molded Rubber Products
Certain industries, such as rail transit, mining equipment, and power facilities, require large, high-strength, one-piece molded rubber products, such as large gaskets, thick-walled connectors, and high-pressure hoses. Hydraulic vulcanizers, with their high tonnage (even exceeding 1,000 tons) and pressure capacity, are well-suited for closing and pressing these large molds.
For products with thick walls and long crosslinking reaction times, hydraulic vulcanizers can maintain constant temperature and pressure for extended periods, ensuring uniform internal vulcanization and preventing quality defects such as under-vulcanization in the center or burnt exterior.

Conclusion: Summary of the Applicability of Hydraulic Vulcanizers
The hydraulic vulcanizer is known as the "workhorse molding equipment of the rubber industry" due to its stable structure, precise pressure control, flexible operation, and wide adaptability. It is not only suitable for a variety of general-purpose rubber products, but also can meet complex requirements such as specialized functional materials, composite structures, and precision molds, playing an irreplaceable role in multiple industries.