Controlling the Curing of a Rubber Compound

A process for curing a plurality of rubber parts composed of a natural or synthetic rubber compound having fillers using vulcanization equipment, comprising:

• a) curing, at each of a plurality of predetermined specifications for a corresponding curing environment, a corresponding sample of the rubber compound for obtaining a corresponding curing time indicative of the cured sample having one or more predetermined desired or specified mechanical properties;
• b) for each specification (S) of the plurality of predetermined curing environment specifications, curing a corresponding amount of the rubber compound while measuring curing conditions by dielectric or impedance signals transmitted through the corresponding amount, wherein the corresponding amount is cured for obtaining a corresponding part, or cured in a witness cavity for obtaining a corresponding part, wherein the measuring of the curing conditions occurs during the curing of the corresponding amount to produce a corresponding process curve for the rubber compound and the specification of the curing environment S;
• c) obtaining data for predicting a curing end time using a correlation between the curing times of the cured samples, and one or more characteristics of the process curves;
• and
• d) for a plurality of additional amounts of the rubber compound, curing each additional amount corresponding to an additional part while obtaining curing condition measurements by dielectric or impedance signals transmitted through the additional amount being cured, wherein the data for predicting is combined with the measurements for thereby determining when to terminate the curing of the additional amount so that the additional part has the one or more predetermined desired or specified mechanical properties.