Modeling processing of silicone rubber: Liquid versus hard silicone rubbers

The processing of hard and liquid silicone rubbers (LSR) are compared by means of modeling and simulation. The curing process for both, hard and liquid silicone, are modeled using the auto‐catalytic Kamal‐Sourour model and a nonlinear regression method is used to find the kinetic parameters. The fitted kinetic model is then combined with the heat balance equations to simulate real processing conditions. Both resins are compared in terms of process performance and consistency of the final part. The results show that even though hard silicone rubbers are less expensive resins, its processing conditions present several issues of consistency and quality control when compared with LSR. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 119:1864–1871, 2011