How Does Heat Vulcanization Work?
Vulcanization is a process of heating rubber until it becomes a viscous mass, and then allowing it to cool down. In vulcanized mold making, this heating is done ahile the mold is under a great deal of pressure. This pressure serves two purposes: it forces the viscous mass of rubber into the spaces around the model, and also keeps the rubber from expanding and becoming too porous (which rubber can and will do when heated). There are several types of heat vulcanization, using heat, or a combination of both heat and sulfur compounds. The heat vulcanized molds I will discuss use only heat.
