COMPUTER-CONTROLLED ROTATIONAL MOLDING OF LIQUID SILICONE POLYMER

Rotational molding in two axes has the advantage of producing hollow p roducts. Previously, the inherent difficulty was in the production of objects with uniform thickness since the speed of the two primary axes are fixed and cannot be varied independently to take into account the changes in material properties such as its density and viscosity. Wit h the advent of computers, it is now possible to control the thickness of the object accurately. This is made possible by creating an intell igent software which takes in the viscosity and density time variation of the polymer and using the flat plate withdrawal theory, computes t he new speed for each axis. The relationship between rotational moldin g parameters and polymeric material properties for a solvent-silicone rubber system to produce a hand prosthesis is illustrated in this pape r.