What Is the Vinyl Process (Roto-Casting)?
The origin of Roto-casting lies in the world's first Roto-casting machine, which was invented in Germany in 1924, successfully producing the first vinyl toy, the "chocolate rabbit." Since then, Roto-casting has permeated every corner of people's lives. vinyl toys are popular toys that can bring unlimited vitality.
Many people mistakenly believe that vinyl refers to a type of material. It is necessary to clarify that vinyl is actually a term for a manufacturing vinyl process(Roto-casting). Due to the special nature of this process, some additional substances are added to the materials, resulting in Roto-casting toys(vinyl toys) feeling different from ordinary PVC toys, leading to the misconception that vinyl is a name for a material.
The vinyl process includes mold making, high-temperature shaping in a Roto-casting oven (at temperatures of 250°C to 280°C), shaping in a cooling oven (at around 100°C), and subsequent decoration processes. The Roto-casting process involves applying copper layer by layer onto the surface of the prototype (there may be other metals involved, but the specific process is not yet known). This layer of copper forms a simple metal mold, which is then filled with PVC paste resin (some say PVC granules) along with various plasticizers to adjust softness and hardness, creating a latex-like state. This mixture is poured into the prepared metal mold, which is then placed over heat and continuously rotated for even heating, cooled, and the product is removed from the mold. Generally, the focus is on producing hollow-formed products. Since it is made with PVC paste resin, the paste resin is finer than ordinary PVC resin, resulting in a different tactile feel. This process is cheaper and easier to produce than typical metal molds, but its downside is that the process does not involve pressure, and the fluidity of the paste PVC is not very good, making it impossible to create very finely detailed toy figures.