The Study Of Electroless Plating Process And Properties On Tire Mold

Tire mold is an important technology and equipment used in the tire curingprocess, it directly affects the external quality，life and safety of the tire. Corrosion,defaced and viscose phenomenon of the tire molds were produced by thecoordination agent, release agent, rubber and the sedimentary layers formed by thecombined effects of these pollutants in the actual production of the tire curing. So themold must be cleaned on a regular basis, which is bound to cause wear and tear onthe mold, mold accuracy decreased, reducing the life of molds. Therefore, it will be agreat practical significance by improving quality surface quality and viscoseproperty of tire mold.Electroless Ni-P binary alloy process on the surface of truck tire mold wasstudied, and electroless plating on passenger tire mold (aluminum-magnesium alloy)was firstly to be studied. Optimal formulas for the plating rate and the hardness weremeasured by orthogonal test. The surface morphology, crystal structure andcomposition of the coating were characterized by SEM, XRD, EDS. And thehardness, thickness, adhesion, porosity, wear resistance, corrosion resistance andviscose performance were tested. The results showed that: coatings were cellularstructure and amorphous form; they have high hardness, good adhesion, low porosity,excellent wear resistance and corrosion resistance; the viscose performance wasresolved.The truck tire mold surface of electroless plating Ni-P-PTFE and Ni-P-REprocess were studied in this paper on the basis of above study. The results showedthat: the corrosion resistance of the Ni-P-PTFE coating has been weakened by theaddition of the PTFE, but it significantly reduced the friction coefficient of the coating, and received good performance of less friction-coating; the addition ofcerium grained refining, increased the deposition rate and the corrosion resistance ofthe coating were further raised.The performances of electroless plating in the tire curing process were tested.The results showed that: plated electroless coating in the tire curing process couldreact with sulfur in the vulcanization system; the coating after heat treatment had notreact with suilfur, good mold release properties, to determine the300°C for optimumheat treatment temperature by appearance quality of coating and demouldingsituation in the vulcanization process; plated type block in the actual sulfideproduction mold released easily, had not occur the phenomenon of viscose, goodsurface quality of the tire, the electroless plating Ni-P alloy has good applicationprospects in the tire mold curing process.