Silicone Butt Pad Production Quality Control Process and Methods

Silicone Butt Pad Production Quality Control Process and Methods: Comprehensive Assurance from Raw Materials to Finished Product

Amidst the rapid growth of the beauty and body care industry, silicone butt pads, with their superior fit, realistic feel, and effective shaping, have become a popular choice for many consumers seeking to achieve their ideal figure.

1. Raw Material Quality Control: Eliminating Hidden Dangers at the Source

The core raw material for silicone butt pads is medical-grade liquid silicone. Its purity, safety, and physical properties directly determine the product’s feel, durability, and safety. Therefore, raw material control is the first and most critical line of defense for quality control.

1. Raw Material Supplier Screening and Review
We adhere to the principle of selecting the best from the best suppliers. All silicone raw material suppliers must meet the following requirements:

Have certification from internationally recognized organizations such as the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), CE (European Conformity Certification), or SGS (SGS International), ensuring that their raw materials meet medical-grade safety standards;

Provide complete raw material testing reports, including key indicators such as heavy metal content (such as lead, mercury, and cadmium), volatile organic compound (VOC) content, and biocompatibility testing. All indicators must be below international safety limits;

Have stable production capacity and supply chain systems to ensure batch-to-batch consistency of raw materials, preventing product quality instability caused by raw material fluctuations.

In addition, we conduct quarterly on-site inspections of our suppliers to review their production environment, quality control processes, and raw material storage conditions to ensure they consistently meet our standards.

2. Raw Material Incoming Inspection: “Zero Tolerance” for Every Batch

Even with long-term suppliers, every batch of silicone raw materials must undergo rigorous incoming inspection. Inspection items include:

Appearance Inspection: Observe the silicone raw materials for color unevenness, impurities, bubbles, and other issues to ensure that the appearance of the raw materials meets standards.

Physical Property Testing: Use specialized equipment to test the silicone hardness (typically controlled at 20-30 Shore 00, ensuring a soft and elastic feel), tensile strength (≥3.0 MPa), and tear strength (≥10 kN/m) to ensure sufficient durability and prevent breakage during use.

Chemical Safety Testing: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is used to test the volatile organic compound content in the raw materials to ensure VOC content is ≤100 mg/kg. Heavy metal detectors are also used to test for heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium to ensure compliance with EU REACH regulations and US CPSIA standards.

Heat and Cold Resistance Testing: Place the silicone raw materials in a – Place the product in an extreme temperature environment of 30°C to 80°C for 48 hours and observe for cracking, deformation, hardening, and other issues to ensure proper performance in various climates.

Only raw materials that pass all test items can enter the production process. If any indicator fails, the entire batch will be returned and cooperation with the supplier will be suspended until the problem is resolved.

II. Production Process Quality Control: Meticulous Management of Every Step

The production process of silicone hip pads primarily includes mold preparation, silicone infusion, vulcanization molding, trimming, and assembly (if including a cover). Each step requires meticulous control to prevent product quality issues caused by improper operation.

1. Mold Preparation: The Key to Determining the Product’s “Mold Pattern”
Mold precision directly affects the shape, fit, and symmetry of the silicone hip pad. Therefore, quality control during mold preparation is particularly important:

Mold Design Review: After mold design is completed, engineers will use 3D modeling software to check the mold’s dimensional accuracy (e.g., the hip pad’s thickness tolerance must be ≤0.5mm), curvature smoothness, and symmetry to ensure that the mold meets the product design drawing requirements.

Mold Material Selection: High-quality aluminum alloy is used for mold construction. Its excellent thermal conductivity and wear resistance ensure uniform temperature during vulcanization molding, extend mold life, and reduce product deformation caused by mold wear.

Mold Surface Treatment: The mold’s inner surface must be polished to a surface roughness of Ra ≤0.8μm to avoid surface roughness and graining after silicone molding. A food-grade release agent should also be sprayed on the mold surface to ensure smooth demolding of the silicone after molding, without any residue on the product surface.

Mold Pilot Production Testing: After a new mold is manufactured, a pilot production run (10-20 days) is required. (For products with a specific size, shape, and symmetry, the mold is verified to meet requirements. If any issues are found, the mold is promptly corrected until the trial product passes inspection.)

2. Silicone Injection: Precise Control to Avoid Bubbles and Shortages

Silicone infusion is the process of injecting liquid silicone into the mold. This process is prone to problems such as bubbles, shortages, and uneven thickness, and therefore requires strict control:

Silicone Ratio Control: Liquid silicone is typically mixed with component A (base rubber) and component B (curing agent) in a specific ratio (usually 10:1). We use fully automated mixing equipment to ensure a ratio accuracy error of ≤1%, preventing improper mixing that may result in incomplete curing of the silicone or unsatisfactory hardness after curing.

Vacuum Degassing: The mixed silicone is placed in a vacuum degassing machine and degassed for 15-20 minutes under a vacuum of -0.095 MPa. The process lasts for 10 minutes to completely remove air bubbles from the silicone, preventing internal bubbles or surface depressions after molding.

Quantitative Injection Control: A fully automatic injection machine is used for silicone injection. The injection volume is precisely controlled (with an error of ≤ 2g) based on the mold dimensions. This prevents excessive injection that could cause excessive overflow, or insufficient injection that could cause product shortages or insufficient thickness.

Injection Environment Control: The injection workshop must maintain a constant temperature and humidity (22±2°C, 50±5%), and adhere to dust-free standards (Class 10,000 cleanliness level) to prevent airborne dust and impurities from entering the silicone and affecting product quality.

3. Vulcanization: A “Precise Balance” of Temperature and Time
Vulcanization involves placing a mold filled with silicone into a vulcanizer and curing the silicone through heating. Controlling the temperature and time during this process directly impacts the curing effect:

Vulcanization Parameter Setting: The vulcanization temperature (typically 120-130°C) and curing time (20-25 minutes) are set based on the characteristics of the silicone raw material. The vulcanizer’s temperature control system monitors the temperature in real time to ensure a temperature fluctuation of ≤±2°C.

Vulcanization Process Inspection: The mold in the vulcanizer is inspected every 10 minutes to check for problems such as mold shifting and adhesive leakage. After vulcanization is complete, one or two products are randomly sampled for hardness testing to ensure they meet the required hardness standards.

Cooling Control: After vulcanization, the product is removed from the mold and placed on a cooling rack to cool naturally to room temperature (approximately 30 minutes). This prevents internal stress from excessive cooling, which could affect its flexibility and durability.

4. Trimming and Assembly: Details Determine Quality

After cooling, the product requires trimming (removing excess glue from the edges) and assembly (if the product includes a cotton or lace outer jacket). Quality control in this process focuses on “details”:

Trimming Standards: Manual trimming is performed using a dedicated trimming knife. The trimmed edges must be smooth, burr-free, and free of excess glue, and the curvature of the edges must conform to the product design. After trimming, wipe the surface with a dust-free cloth to ensure it is clean.

Assembly Control: If the product includes an outer jacket, ensure that the outer jacket’s material meets safety standards (e.g., cotton outer jackets must pass color fastness and formaldehyde content tests), and that the outer jacket and silicone hip pad fit properly, without looseness or shifting. After assembly, inspect the outer jacket’s seams for strength, breakage, or skipping.

Semi-finished Product Inspection: For every 50 units produced, 3 units will be randomly sampled for inspection. Semi-finished products undergo comprehensive inspections (including dimensions, hardness, appearance, and fit). If any issues are found, production must be halted immediately. The cause must be identified and resolved before continuing.

III. Finished Product Quality Inspection: Comprehensive Verification to Ensure “Zero Defects”

After completing the production process, all finished products undergo multiple rounds of rigorous testing. Only products that pass all tests are released for sale. Finished product testing is divided into two categories: “routine testing” and “sampling testing” to ensure the stability and reliability of product quality.

1. Routine Inspection: Every Product “Passes”

Every finished product undergoes the following routine inspections to ensure that its appearance and basic performance meet requirements:

Appearance Inspection: Inspect the product surface for scratches, impurities, bubbles, color variations, and other issues; check for flat edges, symmetrical shapes, and ensure the outer cover (if any) is clean and undamaged.

Dimension Inspection: Use tools such as vernier calipers and tape measures to measure key dimensions such as length, width, and thickness to ensure dimensional tolerances meet design requirements (typically ±1mm).

Weight Inspection: Use a digital scale to measure the product weight, ensuring a tolerance of ≤±5g to avoid uneven weight that could cause wearer imbalance.

Tactile Inspection: Professional quality inspectors touch the product surface to ensure uniform softness and elasticity, ensuring a realistic and comfortable feel.

Sealing Inspection (for waterproof products): Submerge the product in water to observe for water seepage to ensure it meets waterproof standards.

2. Sampling Testing: Verifying Batch Quality Consistency

In addition to routine testing, we also conduct sampling testing on each batch of finished products (sampling ratio is 5%, with a minimum sample size of 20 units). Testing items include:

Durability Testing: The products are repeatedly stretched and squeezed (simulating the stresses of daily wear) 1,000 times. After testing, the products are inspected for cracks, deformation, or changes in hardness. The products are also washed five times in a washing machine (using the normal washing cycle) to inspect for discoloration, deformation, or damage to the outer cover.

Safety Testing: Five products are randomly selected and sent to a third-party reputable testing agency (such as SGS or Intertek) for comprehensive safety testing, including heavy metal content, volatile organic compound content, and skin irritation testing (using human skin patch testing to ensure product non-irritation) to ensure compliance with international safety standards.

User Experience Testing: Invite 10-15 Volunteers of varying body shapes wear the product to test its fit, comfort, and shaping effect. Volunteer feedback is collected, and any user experience issues identified are promptly optimized and improved.

3. Handling of Defective Products: “Zero Tolerance” Principle
For defective products discovered during testing, we implement a “zero tolerance” principle:

If the number of defective products is ≤1%, the defective products will be stored separately, marked, and destroyed. The batch will then undergo a second, comprehensive test to ensure that the remaining products meet quality standards.

If the number of defective products exceeds 1%, the entire batch will be suspended from shipment. The quality department will investigate the cause of the failure (e.g., raw material issues, production process issues, testing errors, etc.), develop and implement a corrective plan, and retest the entire batch until it meets quality standards.

The handling process of all defective products must be recorded in the Quality Control Log, including the cause of the failure, corrective measures, and retest results, to facilitate subsequent traceability and analysis to prevent similar issues from recurring.

IV. Quality Traceability System: Fully Traceable, Accountable

To ensure the quality of every product can be traced back to the specific process and responsible individuals, we have established a comprehensive quality traceability system:

Product Coding Management: Each product has a unique code (including batch number, production date, production workshop, quality inspector number, etc.). This code can be laser engraved or labeled on the product or packaging.

Full Record Archiving: From incoming raw material testing, production process control, to finished product testing, every step of the process, including test data, operation records, and responsible person information, must be entered into the company’s ERP system to ensure full traceability.

Consumer Traceability Service: Consumers can enter the product code through the “Quality Traceability” portal on the independent foreign trade website to access information such as the raw material batch, production process, and test results, enhancing consumer confidence in product quality.

Defective Product Recall Mechanism: If a batch of products is found to have quality issues (such as raw material safety hazards or production process defects), the quality traceability system can quickly identify the affected products, initiate a recall, and issue apologies and compensation to consumers, minimizing the impact on brand reputation.

Conclusion: Win the market with quality, maintain reputation with craftsmanship

In today’s increasingly competitive silicone hip pad market, quality is not only the product’s lifeline but also the bridge that builds trust between companies and consumers. Only through strict raw material control, meticulous production process management, comprehensive finished product testing, and a comprehensive quality traceability system can we produce high-quality products that meet international standards and satisfy consumer needs.