Mastering Silicone Curing Agents: Your No-Nonsense Workshop Guide
HTV Solid Silicone: Peroxide Power Plays
When you’re working with high-temp vulcanizing (HTV) solids like blocks or sheets, organic peroxides (think DCP or DBPMH) are your workhorses. They kick off cross-linking when the heat hits. Here’s how not to botch it:
Dosage Sweet Spot: Aim for 0.5–2% by weight. Less than that? You’ll get under-cured gummy parts. Too much? Hello, scorched rubber and burnt smells. Pro tip: Thicker sections need a heavier hand; thin parts run leaner.
Mixing Matters: Dump it into a two-roll mill or internal mixer, but watch that temp. If your rollers run hot, you’ll trigger early vulcanization—and nobody wants pre-cured chunks gumming up the works.
Curing Like a Pro:
Crank the press to 170–200°C
Time it tight: 30 seconds to a few minutes (geometry’s the boss here)
Secret weapon: Post-cure thick parts at 200°C for 2–4 hours. Burns off volatiles and boosts heat resistance like armor.
LSR Liquid Silicone: Platinum’s Precision Game
Liquid silicone rubber (LSR) runs on platinum catalyst (a two-parter: A+B). Mess this up, and your cure just… stops. Permanently.
Ratio Rules: Stick to 1:1 (A:B) like glue. Use a static mixer in your injection line—no shortcuts, or you’ll see streaky, half-cured rejects.
Contamination Kills: Platinum’s fussy. Keep it far from sulfur, tin, amines, or phosphates. A single contaminated drum or dirty nozzle = dead catalyst = scrap. Floor rule: Dedicate tools to LSR only.
Cure Window:
Mold temp: 130–170°C (sweet spot depends on your compound)
Cure time: As fast as 10 seconds for thin widgets; up to 1 minute for chunky parts.
Red flag: If material sits mixed too long in the barrel? It’ll cure right there. Keep it moving.
Troubleshooting: Shop Floor Fixes
We’ve seen it all. Here’s how to dodge common nightmares:
Patchy Cure or Weak Spots? Likely uneven mixing. Crank up shear or mix longer. Cheap mixers cost you more in rejects.
White Speckles or Grit? That’s undead peroxide or contaminants biting back. Try a longer post-cure or audit your raw materials.
Stuck in Permanent Goo Mode? Check:
✓ Is your platinum poisoned? (Test with fresh catalyst)
✓ Did peroxide expire? (They go stale)
✓ Temp too low? (Get the thermometer calibrated)
Bottom Line:
Silicone curing isn’t voodoo—it’s chemistry with consequences. Nail the agent, process, and timing, and you get parts that hold up under heat, pressure, and customer audits. Struggle? We live in this space.
TNSILICONE: Your Mix Partner
We’re not a faceless distributor. For 15 years, we’ve supplied factories with:
Battle-tested HTV/LSR rubbers
Pure, reliable peroxides & platinum catalysts
Custom color masterbatches & anti-bloomers
Additives that actually work
No marketing fluff. Just raw materials that perform, backed by a tech team who’ve fixed real production fires. Got a curing headache? We’ve got the aspirin.
→ Hit us on WeChat or WhatsApp right now. Send your specs; we’ll recommend a curing agent that won’t let you down—and quote you factory-direct pricing before your shift ends.
