A process for curing a natural or synthetic rubber compound under a
plurality of curing conditions by: (1) obtaining time dependent data
streams of dielectric or impedance values from a non-bridged impedance
sensing circuit and a capacitor having the rubber compound being cured as
a dialectric; (2) determining impedance related measurements from the
obtained data streams; (3) determining a predictive curing equation by
performing a multiple regression between: (a) reheometric data obtained
from a plurality of different rubber compound samples cured in a
rheometer at various environmental curing conditions, and (b)
corresponding samples cured in a production mold at the same
environmental conditions; (4) adjusting the curing equation to obtain
cured parts having one or more desired properties; and (5) controlling
the mass producing cured parts with a controller that uses the curing
equation for predicting a cure time for each part, wherein the
predictions are effective over variations in the rubber compound, and in
the mold temperature.