Types of Silicone Parts Manufacturer

Silicone is in many things we use every day—from hygienic food processing to the soft, squishy covers on earbuds and watch bands. The material’s versatility, durability and biocompatibility have made it an essential manufacturing choice.

Custom manufacturer of compression, insert and injection molded parts and assemblies. Products include silicone, foam rubber and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) materials.

Extruded & Molded Products

The most common way to shape plastic is through extrusion, which uses heat and pressure to create a long profile with a constant cross-section. The process is very efficient and produces high-quality profiles like tubes, rods, wires and monofilaments. The products produced by this method are very durable and able to hold up to a lot of stress, which makes them perfect for a wide range of applications.

The first step of the extrusion process involves adding the plastic resin in the form of pellets to a machine called the extruder. These granules are then fed into a long, heated cylinder through a feed throat. The barrel is designed with a screw within, which causes the pellets to melt into a thick liquid and push out through a die attached to the end of the feeder. The molten plastic is then pushed out to the desired length, and cooled with water and fans.

The benefits of this process include a low setup cost and a fast turnaround time. It is also ideal for producing a large number of the same length of an identical product. This is a major advantage over injection molding, which requires a unique mold and higher upfront design costs. Extrusion is also a good option for creating complex cross-sections, such as the multi-lumen tubing used in medical devices or food processing.

Liquid Injection Molding

Liquid injection molding (LIM) is a versatile manufacturing technique that can produce high-quality parts for many different applications. It is often used for medical devices that need to withstand the rigors of everyday use while maintaining a flexible structure. LIM also can be used for other products such as gaskets, seals and O-rings that are exposed to extreme temperatures.

This method of production utilizes two primary liquid forming materials, a catalyst and base, to create a finished silicone rubber product. The materials are delivered to a machine via supply drums or plungers, which connect to the machine’s Silicone Parts Manufacturer pumping system. A dynamic or static mixer combines the materials after they exit the metering units, and the mixture is deposited into a designated mold cavity through a nozzle with pressurized force.

Unlike thermoplastic elastomers, which tend to lose flexibility at low temperatures, LSRs remain flexible and can handle a wide range of temperature conditions. These characteristics make them a popular choice for heavy-duty applications such as automotive and aerospace seals.

The injection process also offers a shorter cure cycle than compression or transfer molding. This makes it ideal for components that need to maintain an exact size and shape, such as small gaskets and cushioning components with thin cross-sections. It can also be used for complex designs or multiple-cavity components with tight tolerances and stringent flash requirements, such as minimally invasive surgical tools and valves.

Custom Extrusions & Moldings

A wide range of products can be created using custom extrusion. This process produces everything from rods to wires and simple tubes, all with a wide variety of cross-section shapes. The process works by heating aluminum to a soft, malleable state and then pushing it through an extrusion die that has been designed according to the customer’s specifications. Silicone Supplies After being cooled and cut to size, the product can be molded, painted, sanded, anodized, and more in order to give it a finished appearance. Another benefit of this type of molding is that the leftover materials can be reused to create other parts, eliminating the cost and waste associated with creating new materials from scratch.

When it comes to extruded products, the most important consideration is how the end-product will be used and what its performance requirements are. This will help determine the alloys used in the final fabricated product and how durable it must be. The other main factor is the environmental conditions in which the resulting product will operate.

To minimize the chances of error in production, there is a need for excellent communication between the engineering team and the extrusion technician throughout the entire manufacturing process. This is because the exact outcome of each extrusion run can be affected by a multitude of variables that cannot always be predicted, such as pellet size, moisture content, variation in additives compounded into the polymer, heat and drive speeds, and other environmental factors.

Precision Injection Molding

Precision injection molding is a highly effective process for producing parts with high tolerances and accuracy. The material is injected into a mould under very high pressure which allows intricate shapes and close tolerances to be achieved. This process also tends to be more cost effective than many other manufacturing techniques. It is often possible to reduce the number of components needed to produce a product with a higher quality finish using this method, saving on production costs and material usage.

Injection molds are made from steel and are designed to produce high volumes of part per cycle. However, reducing the number of features on a design can help to lower overall production costs for smaller runs. It is also worth minimizing the wall thickness on a design to improve the efficiency of the injection molding process.

This technique is ideal for producing high-quality silicone rubber products such as seals, O-rings, bellows and diaphragms. This type of rubber is designed to be durable and maintain accurate dimensions despite repeated use and wear. It can also be reinforced with fillers to give it extra strength and there is a huge range of colours available for you to choose from when you use this type of material for your product.

It is possible to add text and symbols to a molded piece using this process, which is particularly useful for logos, warnings, diagrams and instructions. It is preferable to have embossed text rather than engraved, as this is easier to machine on the mold and will save on materials.