Glass Reinforced Silicone Extrusion

Hello TheZorses

1. Are you wanting continual length product, which can later be cut to suitable lengths?
2. Does the product need to be in short lengths, sealed one or both ends?
   
3. What lengths would you like?
4. What accuracy dimensionally do you require?
5. What surface finish, internally do you require?
6. What surface finish, externally do you require?

My thought are to have a type of braiding machine, similar to a cable factory unit, with the output being directly pulled over a rounded corner mandrel, which is part of the braiding machine, and that mandrel is inside a tube of the desired cross-section.....

The tube is supplied at the braiding machine end, with the silicone, which covers the moving braid on the mandrel, then vacuum and autoclaved - the mandrel/autoclave would need to be quite long, and possible multiple machines would be required.

Some form of lubricant or release agent would be needed.

Without seeing what you intend making, it's hard to think of another way to do the job, using mass production techniques, as I do not know time/temperature for curing of the product.

Advise back here with....

Kind Regards....

1. Continual is the process I am after but it is used sectionally.

2. Machined aluminium ends are bonded in at a later date.

3. The sections are 12mtrs.

4. Dimensional accuracy is very important but certainly falls within the ranges possible when extruding.

5. I would like the glass braid on or close to the internal surface but the finish is irrelevant to the application.

6. The external surface should be as smooth as possible but we would be coating it in some way. (currently we sit etched FEP into the mould which forms the external of the finished part - this would not be practical for an extrusion process)

However, I want to move away from curing through an autoclave altogether hence my request! I want the finished product to be cured as it leaves the extruder like anything else. Somebody mentioned a "cross-head" extrusion process where the braid is fed directly through the extrusion head.

Note: It doesn't have to be silicone, other high-temp rubbers (Viton, EPDM...) would be fine.

If unsterstand you correctly, basically, there are 3 parts required. The first part is the inner tube. 2nd, the braid. 3rd, the outer tube.

If i'm correct. this is no different from the braided hose except for its shape or profile. To simplify things, i would initially extrude the inner trapezoidal tube at max length. Then you could adopt the hose braiding system for your profile, extrude the outer skin while inserting the inner tube. Though in this process bonding of the 3 parts is primarily sacrificed.

But if for huge quantities, you could extrude the inner profile while simoultaneously braiding and extruding the outer skin using the hose braiding system and two extruders. Bonding of the 3 parts in this process, is firm. I think it is called co-extrusion.

Why must you use rubber? can it be replaced by venoclisis(soft flexible transparent PVC)? like medical IV tubes

It doesn't neccesarily have to be rubber but must be capable of 200^oC. It must be flexible enough to be removed from the finished component (by pulling a vacuum inside it and pulling out manually) and it must be reusable with a minimum of 5 cycles.

if you send me your e-mail I will send you a file for consideration

issatalamas@hotmail.com