The Reaction Injection Moulding, RIM, process, developed in the 60’s at Bayer AG laboratories in Leverkusen, Germany, has been largely applied for the production of polyurethanes in high density foams and elastomers and of plastic components for the aeronautical and automotive industries.
This technology consists of producing plastics parts directly by reaction in the moulds, intensively mixing the raw materials (polyols and isocynates) in the form of viscous liquids at relatively low temperatures. The solidification of the plastic part takes place by rapidly increasing the degree of polymerization on the mould. The key to this process is the quality of mixing of the raw materials; this process is of difficult control and the quality of the resulting products is very dependent on the operating conditions.

RIMcop® (pending patent PCT/IB2005/000886), Reaction Injection Moulding with oscillation and pulsation control technology is an innovative way of control and design of reactive plastic injection which enables the development of new RIM machines of simple operation and high production versatility. The online and automated mixing control results in better quality products with less material and energy consumption. The development of RIM machines with new and different geometries is also possible.

The main advantage of this technology is its production versatility and mixing quality with high degree of adaptabity to the raw materials properties. The use of an additional stream for the injection of polymerization initiators enables the use of the RIM process in new areas of reactive plastic production, namely for transparent plastic with application in optical components for the automotive industry.