1. General information on the RIM process

Most polymers produced by the RIM process, such as polyurethanes, polyureas and polyamides, are the result of polycondensation .

Polyurethanes were first used on dosing machines equipped with an agitator at the component mixing head. This meant cleaning or rinsing the mixing head.

Around 1970, the first publications describing so-called "high-pressure" mixing heads appeared. Their main advantage was the elimination of the need to clean the head after casting, hence the name self-cleaning heads.

The RIM process took off in the mid-1970s. As its name suggests, this is a process of injection into a mold at the same time as the chemical reaction takes place.

Dicyclopentadiene polymerization was mastered in the early 1980s, by which time RIM had already reached maturity. Until...