RTV Pot Life vs Demold Time on the Bench | RUUIPON

Pot life (work time) is how long mixed platinum stays pourable in the cup. Demold time is how long the rubber must sit on the master before you peel the cavity. They are two clocks. If you treat pot life as "when I can dump resin into the mold," you will tear a green skin and copy a fingerprint into every later part. If you treat demold time as "how long I have to mix," you will gel in the cup and pour a rope.

RUUIPON runs both clocks in Bao'an / Shajing since 2018. Prototype 3–7 business days after CAD lock. Production MOQ 20 pieces per design. Simple 3D is USD $50 when that CAD scope applies. Mix 1:1 or 10:1 by weight; platinum shrink after a full cure typically about 0.1–0.3%. Heated LSR cycle times are a different plant — wydsilicone.com.

Does not apply when you are only filling a finished food tray with chocolate or pectin. That is dump set time, not RTV cure. It also does not apply to a post-cure oven step on an HCR *part*.

Work time is the mixer clock; demold is the cavity clock

TDS pot life is measured on a small mass at a stated room temperature. A 200 g cup in a 22 °C room is not a 20 g cup in a 30 °C room. Mass heats itself. Thin films gel slower. Vacuum time counts against pot life: if you degas until the foam collapses and you already spent half the work window, you pour immediately, you do not "let it rest." Vacuum minutes are work-time minutes. Start the clock at A meeting B, not at the moment the flask is full.

Demold time is longer. The face against a cold metal master lags the back of a thick block. A 10A glove may feel dry on the jacket and still smear on a deep serif. We wait for a clean fingernail mark on a witness tab, then peel. First resin or plaster dump is later still if the TDS lists a full-cure band.

Room, mass, and master temperature beat a screenshot of a US kit label. We would not copy a 30-minute YouTube demold onto a 10:1 drum that lists hours.

flowchart TD
  A[Weigh 1:1 or 10:1] --> B[Fold and vacuum — this eats pot life]
  B --> C[Pour while the cup still flows]
  C --> D[Wait demold on a witness tab, not the clock photo]
  D --> E{Nail mark recovers?}
  E -->|smears| F[Wait; check master temperature]
  E -->|recovers| G[Peel cavity]
  G --> H[Full cure before a hot or abrasive dump]

The photo that would prove the two clocks: cup with a timestamp at mix, flask with a timestamp at pour, witness tab with a fingernail mark at peel. A single "cured overnight" caption hides which clock you meant.

A third clock sits behind both of those: library life on the shelf after you accept the tool. Pot life is minutes. Demold is hours. Storage is months. Do not file the TDS pot-life line as the date the mold "expires."

Why a TDS hour is not a PO

Buyers paste "demold 6 hours" onto the RFQ and then open the box at four because the shift ended. Green rubber stretches, keys tear, the master undercut rips a lip. Recast. Write the wait on the traveler as "not before," not as a target to beat.

Shift handoff is where the clocks get mixed on paper. Night crew sees "6 h" on a sticky note and reads it as pot life remaining. Write the three stamps in full: mixed at, poured at, not-before peel at. If the master is still in the flask, nobody "checks hardness" by poking the show face with a dirty screwdriver. That dent is now the cavity. ISO 3302-1 M2 is a size class on the dump. It is not a cure-time class.

Shop numbers for the two clocks

Caption: typical shop values, not a named PO. Exact minutes come from the drum TDS and the room, not from this table.

Clocks we would not compress

We would not recommend peeling at pot life because the video did.

We would not recommend heating a green mold in a kitchen oven to "finish faster" on a food-contact cavity without a written post-cure plan. Name 21 CFR 177.2600 on the article if this is food.

We would not recommend dumping hot PU at demold if the TDS still wants a full cure. Exotherm plus green rubber is a torn glove.

We would not recommend adding extra B to shorten pot life. That is a ratio mistake, not a clock.

A tooling charge is not unrestricted ownership of the traveler or the TDS we used. Ask for the grade name on the PO if you need to recast the same clock later.

Worked example: jewelry master peeled at 90 minutes

Jewelry resin master, 35 mm, 1:1 platinum, buyer opened at 90 minutes because the kit card said "pot life 45 min, demold 60 min" in a different climate. Lip tore at a bail. Recast: same 1:1, vacuum, overnight on the master at shop temperature, witness tab first. Prototype 3–7 business days after CAD lock. $50 3D did not apply (STEP in mm). Production MOQ 20 of that design. Related: jewelry resin molds.

Mix-up: pot life is how long until I can use the mold

Pot life is how long *you* can still pour the rubber. Demold is how long the *rubber* must sit. Using the mold for a customer dump is a third clock (full cure, sometimes a mild oven). Three sentences on the traveler. The other mix-up is mixing a large cup "so we don't run out" and then watching pot life collapse from mass heat.

Questions that separate the clocks

• Grade, 1:1 or 10:1, and the TDS pot life / demold / full-cure lines?
• Mix mass and room temperature on pour day?
• Master material and temperature (cold metal vs foam)?
• First dump chemistry and peak °C — at demold or after full cure?
• Who writes "not before" on the traveler?

Related: mix-ratio mistakes, how much silicone, contact.

RFQ copy-pack — work time vs demold

Paste into [email protected]:

Object: RTV mold I pour into, not an LSR/HCR part Grade if specified: 1:1 or 10:1 by weight Room you will pour in (°C) and mix mass if you self-pour When you need to peel the master, and when the first dump happens Dump material and peak °C File: STEP / STL / photos with a millimetre scale CAD: mold-ready STEP OR USD $50 3D if that scope applies Prototype 3–7 business days after CAD lock, then MOQ 20 per design

Send the two clocks you need, not "fast silicone." We put "not before" on the traveler — not a blank "free quote." Phone +86 135 3006 2969. Licheng Technology Industry Park, Xinhe Blvd, Shajing, Bao'an. Shop since 2018.

FAQ

Can I dump resin as soon as the mold peels? Peel means the cavity left the master. A hot or abrasive dump may still want full cure. Read both TDS lines.

Why did a large cup gel faster than the TDS? Mass. A big mixed shot heats itself and eats pot life. Mix what the box needs; see the volume page.

Does a warm room shorten demold as well as pot life? Usually both move. A cold metal master can still delay the face. Use a witness tab.

If I miss pot life, can I thin the gel with solvent and pour? We would not. You changed the rubber. Mix a new weighed shot.

Is the 3–7 day prototype the demold time? No. 3–7 business days after CAD lock is the shop calendar to a first tool. Demold is hours on the bench inside that calendar.