The professionals at Rubber Industries fully understand your need for constant access to high-quality tools, products, and items to help you accomplish every project goal you encounter. We offer you maximum versatility in all our products and services, and we work hard to give you access to parts made from an exhaustive list of very effective material choices. The following information will talk about a specific material known as EPDM. It will also cover important advantages that can be obtained from using products made from this versatile material.
What is EPDM? EPDM is a versatile elastomer made from synthetic compounds. It can be blended with other common elastomers to enhance the compound properties and advantages that each one has to offer. As a result of its unique nature, EPDM can be used successfully in a wide variety of applications. We produce a lot of custom tooling and custom bonded items at Rubber Industries. EPDM is often a very good candidate to be bonded to other materials to create an extensive list of design and performance options to choose from for all important project needs. It can be bonded to many different materials, such as various metals like stainless, aluminum, brass, and others, to offer you the most versatility possible. What Benefits Does EPDM Offer? EPDM is a common choice among professionals in many different areas of expertise. It is a material that can handle constant exposure to various temperature extremes and fluids, making it a wise choice for projects relating to the automotive and transportation industry. In fact, it is often used in the formation of gaskets, seals, and other items used to line the frame, windows, or trunks of various types of vehicles. EPDM can handle a lot of wear and tear, making it a great choice for heavy machinery and vehicles of all types. It may also be put to good use in various types of hoses and tubes required in medical, consumer, or defense contracting fields. Versatility in Materials and Their Production Of course, we rely on the use of many additional materials aside from EPDM. For example, nitrile rubber, FKM, SBR, and different bonding formations are frequently requested by our happy customers. Our in-house and expanded custom molding capabilities can handle both small and large volume production needs with precision and ease. We work hard to produce tens of millions of individual parts every year for people just like you. Additionally, our multi-faceted quality checkpoints allow us to provide you with parts that consistently boast a low level of defects and other issues. At Rubber Industries, we strive to gain and keep your confidence by providing you with the highest quality materials in the fastest time. We have over 50 years of dedicated experience behind our name. This means we can give you the utmost peace of mind when it comes to choosing our manufacturing facilities for your important project needs. We never want to see you waiting endless week or months just for access to the vital tools needed to accomplish your project goals. This is why we maintain one of the largest in-house manufacturing facilities that operates around the clock all year. We never shut down. We also partner with other overseas manufacturing companies in order to provide you with limitless options for the customization and personalization of each item you need. If you have an important project with a strict deadline looming ahead, please contact our dedicated production team to receive a complete estimate for all materials and services we have to offer. We would love to work firsthand with you in order to help you accomplish your precision goals with ease.
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The Medical Industry And Silicone
Rubber Industries And The Medical Products That Save Lives When you think about a rubber and silicone manufacturer, you usually won't think of life saving equipment. Images of car tubing and seals, industrial parts, and o-rings for consumer products might come to mind. However, the medical field is actually one of our largest consumer bases. The medical field has a constant need for equipment made from silicone and we're one of their largest suppliers. The products we make can be single use items for a quick check up, or they can be as important as the casing on a life saving implant. Regardless of the intended use, we make a massive supply of those items every year. Why Is Silicone Used In The Medical Field? You might want to know why silicone is such a commonly used material in all areas of the medical field. There are several reasons as to why this is the case:
Silicone is considered to be a safe, non-toxic, bacteria immune material. It doesn't release any toxic compounds if it does degrade. That means that surgeons can use tools made from silicone confidently and without worrying about the material poisoning their patients if it's used on an open wound, inside the mouth, or as a transportation vessel for fluids and medicine. It also stretches and has a high flexibility rating. While silicone isn't very abrasion resistant, it can withstand being yanked, bent, or kinked without malfunctioning. In the high stress environment of a hospital, this can mean the difference between a slight misjudged movement causing a catastrophe, or the same mistake being a simple inconvenience. The durability of the material is one of its most important traits in the medical field. Silicone is very biocompatible. This ties in with it being non-toxic and safe for use within the body, but it goes a bit beyond that. The human body doesn't have a negative reaction to silicone being placed in the body or a wound. This makes it a useful material for implants and even jacket cables for micro cameras that are used to look inside of the internal organs of a patient. There's also a comfort factor involved. Silicone doesn't cause irritation when doctors use it to transport a camera or other device into specific bodily cavities. How Is Silicone Used In The Medical Industry? Well, you now know what key factors make silicone useful to medical practicioners. How is it most commonly used, though? It's used in a lot of their most commonly used tools:
The tubing that you see in hospitals and other medical centers is most often made from silicone. This includes IV tubes, feeding tubes, breathing tubes, the tubes connecting respiratory masks, and any other tube that you'd normally see in a medical setting. The three main reasons for this are silicone's non-toxic nature, inability to house bacteria, and the comfort that properly made silicone can afford patients that are already stressed. Another benefit is that it won't break easily if a patient yanks on it or kinks the tube. Implanted devices are most often encapsulated in silicone in whole, or in part to protect them from bodily fluid and other factors. Sometimes, the implant is constructed completely from silicone. This can be the case for stints, cosmetic implants, or other such implants that don't utilize electronic components. The biocompatibility and safety of silicone are its main benefits with this application. Obviously, if something is going to be implanted within a patient's body, it can't release toxins or otherwise harm the individual. Cable jackets are another family of products that are made from silicone. These are essentially silicone based covers for power cables and wires that are likely to be used inside of a patient, or around an open wound. Cable jackets made from silicone make it more comfortable and a lot easier to insert cameras into a patient's body for viewing and examination. They also won't cause irritation to the skin or organs. Cable jackets can also be found on power tools used for surgery to protect the cables from being exposed to fluid. Since silicone doesn't allow the growth of bacteris, these cable jackets can stay sanitary through the use of basic sterilization processes. A lot of protective coverings for medical equipment are made from silicone. Needle protectors and other covers that prevent a sharp object from accidentally harming someone when not in use are all examples of this. The covers remain sterile when cared for properly, they don't break down easily, and they don't release toxic substances onto the instruments they protect. How Do We Make These Important Parts? At Rubber Industries, we have decades of experience serving the medical field with our silicone products. We've mastered the production of these life saving parts and we're relied on for our quality and speed by the biggest brands in the industry. Here's a little insight into our process. We begin with a design of the product. We can create parts from designs that you send us, or we can make a CAD (Computer-Aided Design) in shop. Regardless of how far along you are in your project, we can help. Then, we utilize our CNC shop to create the custom tooling that'll be used during the production run of your project. We have expert CNC machinists on staff at all times to program our machines, oversee the cutting process, and inspect the tooling. Each tool that we create is made from 4130 steel to ensure that it lasts throughout your entire production run. From there, we create a functioning prototype of your desired product. This allows you to see exactly what the part will be like, how it'll work, and whether or not you need to make any changes to the design. Finally, we utilize a number of molding methods to actually start producing your product. We only use modern equipment in our facility and all of our silicone parts are made in a dedicated shop to ensure that they're of medical grade quality. For fifty years, our family has produced quality custom rubber and silicone molds to some of the largest brands. Those fifty years have provided us with the knowledge and expertise necessary to fully understand the world of custom molds. In this blog post, we'll go over exactly what custom rubber and silicone molds are, how they're made, and what they're used for.
There are several techniques used to make custom molds. What a lot of consumers don't realize is that the process has to be adapted to fit the part being made. Some companies will do the opposite and try to make the part fit their pre-established manufacturing process. This leads to lower quality parts and it's something that Rubber Industries avoids. What Are Custom Rubber and Silicone Molds? In general, molds are the tools used to shape and form a material into a desired product. Typically, the material can be injected, pressed, transferred, or poured into the mold. The method used is largely based off of the type of part being made. When people think of molds, they most often think of the old children's toys that involved pouring molten plastic or candy into a small mold and allowing it to harden. While the process is much more complex for manufacturing real parts and items, the general idea is similar. What Are The Different Molding Techniques That Rubber Industries Uses To Produce Our High Quality Parts? As mentioned above, there are several different types of molds and processes used to create our products. Depending on the product being made and the application that the resulting product will be used for, a different process will be chosen and possibly adapted to ensure that the resulting product is properly made. Within the confines of our large, 5 acre, campus, we use a number of methods to produce our quality products:
The general act of creating a custom molded rubber or silicone product requires a mold to be made from scratch. Depending on the method used, the mold will be made differenly. Some companies will use a temporary aluminum alloy to create their prototype molds. These are typically cut at a CNC machine under the watchful eye of an experienced CNC machinist. At Rubber Industries, we create our molds a bit differently. Instead of using temporary aluminum to create the tooling for our customer's parts, we utilize stainless, 4130, and 4140 steel. Interestingly, steel tooling from Rubber Industries is not initially more expensive than aluminum, and our stainless/steel based tooling will last much longer. It's not uncommon for custom tooling made of aluminum to be damaged, lose its form or lose it high precision entirely before a project is near completion or not able to manufacture a second longer manufacturing run. With our tooling made from true tool steel, we can produce a customer's entire order with the same tooling and it will almost certainly last for much longer than that. We offer our custom tooling starting at $800 dollars and that's remarkably inexpensive when compared to the amount of replacement tools that would be necessary when using aluminum. Injection Molding With Rubber After the general creation of the mold, a popular process used is rubber or silicone molding. The main idea behind rubber and silicone molding is efficiency and that is something that we've mastered over our fifty years of business. To begin, the material used for the desired product has to be processed to maximize efficiency and minimize waste. To do this, Rubber Industries takes a mix of bulk rubber and slices it into approximately two inch wide strips that are a half of an inch thick. These strips are long or continuous in length. After the material is properly sized, it's automatically fed into a mechanical screw. The screw forces the material into a barrel and it is then pre-heated to reduce its viscosity. With a lower viscosity, the rubber can fill the cavities of the mold much more quickly and easily. This leads to more efficient use of the material and shorter cure times once the mold cavity is filled. After the material is heated, it is pushed into the mold cavity until the cavity is filled. After that, the material is cooled and cured to produce the end product. Injection molding is extremely efficient and precise. The items made with it can exhibit extremely tight tolerances when a properly designed mold is used. The products are also made faster since the cycle time of the presses used are shorter for rubber injection presses. Our larger presses are capable of injecting up to fifteen pounds of material in a single cycle. Pre-forms are completely unnecessary for injection molding and this saves production cost by eliminating the need for a staff member to be present to consistently change the pre-forms. I bet you didn't realize that we buy truckloads of material just for injection molding, and that's why we are so competitive. Size matters.... Besides the speed and efficiency benefits of injection molding, there are also cost benefits in how the material is acquired. We purchase truckloads of rubber every year to utilize in our injection process and it allows us to lower our manufacturing costs drastically. It's also a flexible process and allows for the creation of overmolded products. Liquid Injection Molding Of Liquid Silicone Rubber Injection molding can also be used to make liquid silicone rubber products. LSR is an incredible material that has a lot of advantages over natural rubber in certain applications. The process for injection molding LSR is fairly similar to that of rubber. Except, liquid silicone is a synthetic material that we can create with thousands of different custom formulas. This gives it an advantage when it comes to flexibility of use. Despite the processes injection molding of rubber and LSR being similar, extra precautions need to be made when making products from LSR. LSR is resilient to mold, resistant to bacteria growth, UV light, x-rays, extreme temperatures, tearing, and degradation. It's also can be made out of completely non-toxic and FDA, even USP Class VI approved ingredients. This makes it a prime choice of material for medical products and other products that require sterility. Because of this, LSR products have to be made entirely separate from other products in a clean, dedicated, and well-managed area. If the product isn't made in such a place, it can be contaminated and fail to meet the standards of customers, or even cause serious issues if it's used in a medical application or certain consumer products. For this reason, Rubber Industries houses all of their LSR equipment in a dedicated clean area. What Type Of Custom Mold Material Is Best For Your Product? The material used in the production of a product is entirely dependent on the product being made. For instance, natural rubber wouldn't typically be used to encapsulate a medical device. However, LSR is perfect for overmolding onto something such as an implant to protect it due to its natural resistances to microcrobes and other bacteria. On the other hand, using rubber for something like an overmolded tool handle is perfectly acceptable. It's all dependent on the intended application of the desired product. Liquid Silicone Rubber is also the better choice for high heat applications like the manufacturing of automobile engine gaskets. Certain LSR formulas can withstand up to 250 degrees centigrade without becoming unreliable or malfunctioning. LSR is also available in any color. Naturally, it's optically clear. So, it's perfect for use in transparent products. However, it can also be colored via custom color mixtures. At Rubber Industries, we have fifty years of experience with the use and production of these materials. When you come to us for your prototyping or production needs, we can easily help you in finding the right material for your product. We will also show you which exact compound will the most effective for your application. The Entire Process Is Available At Rubber Industries Now, custom molding is a complex topic that consists of a lot of technical jargon and memorization of chemical compounds. Luckily, Rubber Industries can handle the entire process, from start to finish, at our 5 acre campus. We can create the tooling necessary to mold your products, the custom compound that your product will be made of, and then handle the entire manufacturing process. We understand all of the technical jargon and we have decades of experience using the different materials. If you've got something that needs to be made, we can help. How Rapid Prototyping Works - Should You Consider It?
Rapid prototyping refers to a set of methods that can be used for creating a prototype faster than it would otherwise take. The prototype is made from 3D CAD (computer-aided design) software, a type of software that greatly speeds up the process. With a skilled and experienced manufacturing company, you can have a prototype in your hands from 1 day, to a couple of weeks. Simpler designs can be delivered within days. Some companies use temporary molds made of aluminum for creating rubber prototypes. We make all of our molds, even for prototypes, out of steel because it's a higher quality material for this purpose. Steel molds deliver better quality rubber, silicone, and LSR prototypes because you count on the precision tolerances holding up no matter how complex your part and mold design. Once you're ready to move on to production, we can quickly fulfill your orders because our plant stays in operation 24 x 7 x 365. Keep in mind that not all prototyping companies offer production of rubber, silicone and LSR components, which can make the process of getting your product into the market take longer. How Rapid Prototyping Works Each company has its own process since rapid prototyping allows for many different ways of tackling it. In general, the geometric model is created in a 3D CAD program like Solidworks (or similar). To get an idea of how much faster rapid prototyping is, automakers can build and test an electric car within one year. It could take years without technology like 3D CAD and rapid prototyping services from Rubber Industries, Inc. Should You Use Rapid Protoyping? Rapid prototyping comes with many benefits, such as:
Techniques Used in Rapid Prototyping Some of the techniques that can be used in rapid prototyping include:
Industries Almost any industry can benefit from rapid prototyping, including the medical, industrial, consumer, automotive, and defense contracting industries. Whether you have small or large prototypes to make, we can create rubber models following your design specifications. We the fastest complete steel tooling for rubber, synthetic rubber, and silicone prototyping molding services in the industry. Our company has experience in building prototypes for clients from the medical, industrial, consumer, automotive, and defense contracting industries. Rubber type materials and silicone is an excellent material choice for your product because it comes with a wide array of benefits, depending on what type of rubber you use. It's a material that can provide flexibility and durability, but it can also be used for harder surfaces as well. Some types of rubber are extremely resistant to low and high temperatures, which is why it's commonly used for automobile parts. Other benefits of elastomers include permeability, resistance to sliding, insulation, resistance to abrasions, and resistance to tearing. Liquid silicone rubber (LSR) is biocompatible, making it useful for medical purposes. Rapid prototyping is an essential step in designing a product and bringing it to the market as quickly and efficiently as possible. You can save time and money by using rapid prototyping rather than conventional prototyping. Rubber Industries has the fastest complete rapid prototyping services for rubber and synthetic rubber products (like EPDM, Nitrile/NBR, SBR, Neoprene, Viton, etc). We can finish prototype tooling in 1-15 days, and once you're ready for production, we can deliver your parts in 1-10 days. A Guide To The Different Kinds of Rubber for Manufacturing Beginners
If you haven’t worked with a manufacturing partner before, you may easily feel overwhelmed by the terminology thrown around and the amount of choices that need to be made. Understanding the different types of rubber on the market and the various ways these compounds can be used to manufacture your product is vital to getting the final product you want. Here is a quick guide to the most popular types of rubber and how they can be used to deliver a finished product that helps you accomplish your goals. FKM or Viton As with many kinds of rubber, the names FKM and Viton refer to the same product. Viton is a trademarked name for a form of FKM. Manufacturing with FKM can be more expensive than using a nitrile compound thanks to the ultra-high resistance of the material, but the end result can last for as long as you need it to. Components made with FKM compounds are unlikely to decay or disintegrate over time, making them an excellent value for the money spent over time. Silicone The term silicone can be applied to a variety of synthetic rubber compounds that include a form of silicone in the production, along with other ingredients like carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. As a sealant, silicone will defend against air and water penetration, making it popular in household applications like caulk. LSR, or liquid silicone rubber, can be used for custom tooling and molding to make any shape or size needed. Using overmolding, silicone can be attached to a metal or plastic component to deliver a custom designed product that incorporates multiple finishes. Nitrile If you want to make a durable product, nitrile rubber is a wise choice of material. Nitrile rubber is known for its resistance to an amazing range of conditions, including temperature extremes and chemical compounds. It can resist fuel and oil, making it ideal for automotive engine components, industrial machinery parts and protective gloves. HNBR, or hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber, is a rubber compound made with nitrile to be even stronger and more resistant than a regular form of nitrile. Butyl While initially used to make inner tubes for car tires, butyl has come to be present in many consumer products, from plastic wrap to sealing caulk. Impermeable to air, butyl rubber is the best choice if you need to create a protective seal that will never allow oxygen to pass through. This makes it popular for use in chemical and gas protective equipment, like masks and gloves. If you are looking for an experienced manufacturer to help guide you through the process, Rubber Industries is ready to assist you. Our company includes facilities in the United States and Asia to ensure that production runs 24 hours a day. This approach helps us give our customers the fastest turnaround time in the industry, taking only a few days to make hundreds or thousands of components. To find out more about our manufacturing capability and how we can help you, contact us today.
The History of Lean Manufacturing and Why the Products You Buy Actually Work In the 1970s, manufacturers in North America and Europe had a serious problem. Japanese companies that had long been dismissed as quaint and largely irrelevant were eating into their market shares and profit margins like rapacious predators. Worried executives in cities from Detroit to Dusseldorf quickly dispatched teams of efficiency experts to Japan to find out what companies like Toyota, Hitachi and Sony were up to. They wanted to know what could be done to reverse what they saw as a worrying and potentially ruinous trend. Unfortunately, most of these teams were dazzled by Japanese culture and completely missed the secret of their suddenly surging competitors. They came back and told their CEOs that Japanese workplace culture was the ingredient they were missing, and soon western executives were wearing overalls, eating their lunch next to factory workers and perfuming elaborate calisthenics routines before starting their workdays. It comes as no surprise that none of this had any effect. Improved morale does not lower overheads and egalitarian attitudes do not pay the rent. Japanese companies were not concerned about their share prices or quarterly sales figures, but they were focused on building a manufacturing foundation that would serve them for decades to come. What was really driving their manufacturing success was a commitment to engineering and a focus on lean production methods, and today’s consumers, who have grown used to products that work and don’t break, owe them a great deal of thanks. The Muda of All Concepts This 1970s wake-up call and the epiphanies that followed are the reasons why so many of the terms used to describe lean manufacturing are Japanese. Chief among these esoteric terms is Muda. Muda is the Japanese word for wastefulness and futility, and it is the principal that turned Japanese carmakers and electronics manufacturers into global powerhouses. Companies like Honda and Canon identified activities that added value and helped them to make products that consumers actually wanted to buy, and they then looked for activities that drained resources without creating value. These non-value adding activities were then separated into two categories that allowed Japanese companies to eliminate waste and save money without impacting product quality. Type I Muda Activities These are activities crucial to manufacturing a quality product that do not provide customers with a benefit that they can see or touch. Examples of Type I Muda activities include product quality testing, inspections and crash tests. Type II Muda Activities Muda Type II activities squander resources while adding no benefit for either the manufacturer or consumer, and it is eliminating them that forms the foundation of all modern lean production methods. Toyota is seen as the pioneer in this area for good reason, and Kiichiro Toyoda built his company by reducing or eliminating what he saw as the seven great wastes.
Mura Makes the World Go Around Mura is a Japanese word that means irregularity or inequality, and it is used to describe the just-in-time production philosophy that made Toyota the world’s largest auto manufacturer. Mura is the way that Muda principles are put into practice, and it is achieved by ordering carefully, scheduling jobs prudently to avoid bottlenecks and choosing reliable business partners. Rubber Industries Inc. embraces Mura by concentrating all of its operations at a vast 5-acre campus, adopting a first-in, first-out production strategy and establishing strategic partnerships with some of the most respected manufacturers and suppliers in Asia. A Muri Way to Run a Business Muri means unreasonable or impossible in Japanese, and it is incorporated into lean manufacturing by standardizing production and business practices whenever possible to eliminate waste and prevent mistakes. At Rubber Industries Inc., each step of the production process is broken down into its component parts and analyzed carefully to identify areas that can be improved. It is this fastidious attention to detail that has made us capable of doing in days or even hours what our competitors take weeks or months to accomplish. In Plain English Rubber Industries Inc. workers do not perform push-ups or jumping jacks before they clock in, and our senior executives may have a slightly nicer bathroom to use. While our corporate culture remains distinctly American, what we have taken from Japanese companies like Nissan and Panasonic is a commitment to making the very best products available and delivering them to our customers at a price that scarcely seems possible. Lean manufacturing principles like Muda, Mura and Muri are the reason why we can produce quality steel prototypes in a day and custom molded rubber or silicone prototypes in as little as 72 hours. The wisdom of manufacturing pioneers like Kiichiro Toyoda inspires us to invest millions into what is already a state-of-the-art facility, and it is our success at incorporating their philosophies into our day-to-day operations that makes us the first choice for Fortune 500 companies and small local businesses alike. Types of Custom Molding You May Need in the Automotive Industry
Rubber is an essential material in automobiles, and it's not just limited to the tires. Other parts of a car that are made of some form of rubber include window seals, tubes, gaskets, grommets, o-rings, wiper blades, and belts. We offer manufacturing of auto parts in numerous types of rubber you may need, such as EPDM, NBR, and SBR. To create these rubber parts for you, we need to follow a molding process. Each type of custom molding method comes with its own advantages. Three types of custom molding you may need in the automotive industry are:
Injection Molding This type of molding involves inserting rubber in its molten form into a mold. It cools and hardens inside of the cavity. When clients place an order with us, we make a mold for their product out of steel, so that the mold can be reused thousands of times without needing to be replaced. It's one of the many ways we speed up production. Injection molding can be used for both small and large items. Some injection molded items are tiny components whereas others are the size of a car's body panel. Injection molding is a great choice when you need high volume production of the same item. Compression Molding Compression molding is sometimes used when clients are in need of high-strength auto parts. The process for compression molding can be tricky because the temperature needs to remain stable throughout its duration. This heat compression technique also relies on the operator to create the correct mold. You should choose a company that has experience in compression molding to receive your shipment quickly. Rubber Industries has plenty of experience with compression molding in addition to the other types of custom molding used in the automotive industry. Compression molding is also a good choice when you need a high number of intricate parts or you need to mold multiple textiles together. Through compression molding, we can mold silicone to metal, fiberglass, or other textiles for a product that has multiple finishes. The final product won't fall apart easily. Compression molding gives you the option of avoiding products that need to be assembled. Transfer Molding This molding method is good for producing intricate parts in high volume. Similar to compression molding, temperature needs to be carefully controlled throughout the entire process. Transfer molding starts with closed molds which minimizes flash and enhances precision. Flash is excess material that could have leaked out of the mold. When flash occurs, manufacturers have to spend extra time in removing the flash or creating another item. Because the molds are closed, excess material is easy to remove in transfer molding. For medium to high precision parts, transfer molding is an economical choice. If you need custom colors, transfer molding can be one of the best choices as well. We are able to take more care in preventing extra material from running into other molds with the transfer molding process, which in turn minimizes contamination of custom colors. Available Materials for Custom Molding Types of rubber that are ideal for automotive needs include:
We are highly experienced in manufacturing typical parts that you need in vehicles like seals, gaskets, and o-rings. Our company also has the skill to create molds for more complex and unique items as needed. If you're still unsure of what type of molding to choose for your auto parts, we can make the best recommendation based on what your priorities are for the item. How Rubber Manufacturing Helps Progress in the Aviation and Aerospace Industries
Rubber components have been a part of the aviation industry since the Wright brothers first took to the air. The spirit of independent aviation is rooted in the American desire to build something with your own two hands and use it to explore the entire world around you. If you are designing components for use in the aviation industry, finding a manufacturing partner who can produce the exact components you need is key to your safety and success. The precision needed to make an aircraft function means that every part must be created precisely as you specify. Using rubber for aviation parts makes sense thanks to the cost, versatility and diversity that rubber offers. An example of parts we make for aviation include engine mounts.... now that's a critical component! Our work speaks for how our customers trust us with their most critical components! Why Choose Rubber For An Aviation Project? Rubber components are ideal for use in the aviation industry for a few reasons, including: • Ability to customize to any size or shape needed for the specific engine size. If you are beginning your next design project and are considering your options, specific higher quality rubber performance characteristics can make a significant difference in the capability and life span of the finished product. • Durability over an extended period. Safety is paramount in aviation applications and using a durable rubber or synthetic rubber product will help to ensure your project performs to specification. • Resistance to damage due to exposure to extreme weather conditions. The changing exterior pressures and temperatures as you take to the sky are likely to affect the engine components. Using a durable form of rubber or synthetic rubber like EPDM, Nitrile (NBR) or Neoprene, for example, helps o-rings, gaskets and other parts last longer. • Ability to keep its form once molded into a shape However, if your specific setup requires more durability, overmolding rubber with another material may be the perfect solution. An experienced manufacturing partner can advise you on how to proceed and what materials will give you the best results. Rubber to metal bonded applications can help gaskets, o-rings and engine seals stand up to extreme weather exposure and other hazards that can destroy components made with more pliable materials. Rapid Prototyping Helps Larger Companies Soar Faster As more companies make progress in the aerospace industry, there is a rising demand for components that can survive longer and lower lifecycle costs. Rapid prototyping allows you to get thousands or millions of the components you need for testing and experimentation in a hurry. At Rubber Industries, we help keep the process efficient by handling every aspect under one roof. From creating a prototype to help you see your custom design in real life to producing a high volume of the component you need quickly, we have the capacity to handle it all. This keeps you from having to deal with two separate entities for prototyping and manufacturing. Plus, our production is the fastest in the industry, with facilities working around the clock in multiple different nations to fill orders on any deadline. If you are creating a customized aerospace or aviation project and need components tailor made to your vision, Rubber Industries can help. We make custom parts for this industry segment. Our team has the experience to take your sketches. 3D CAD or plans and turn them into a real product you can feel confident about meeting and exceeding your specifications and requirements. Contact us today to get a price quote and time frame for the parts you need. Top Things to Look for When Choosing a Manufacturing Partner
Whether you are a Fortune 50, a mid size business, an entrepreneur or successfully scaling your business to the next level, choosing a manufacturing partner to develop a prototype or line of products can be a stressful decision. Handing over such a major part of your critical project over to a new partner can be hard for you, especially if you’ve been unilaterally in control of the process for years. Not to mention, keeping the cost of production in budget and on the critical path timeline is vital to your bottom line and overall success. While it's normal to be apprehensive at this stage, if you do some research and choose the right company as your manufacturer, you can feel confident that your product will turn out as you designed, and envisioned. There are honest, hardworking manufacturers who have the experience and skill to help guide you though the process of making your product. If you’re selecting a manufacturing partner for the first time, here are some tips to keep in mind as you navigate the process. Choose an Experienced Manufacturer Even if you’re manufacturing simple components that fit into a straightforward design, it’s important for the manufacturer to know what they are doing and how to do it. A manufacturer with experience can advise you on the differences between molding types, whether your product needs to be custom molded, and how long it will take to machine and produce everything. Manufacturers who have not done much production can end up with various issues in the final product they send on to you. Many new entrepreneurs end up wasting time and money due to production errors that make them unable to fill their first set of orders. Ask the Right Questions Many manufacturers will claim they can do everything you need in order to get your business. Ask more precise questions to get a better idea of how well the company knows their stuff and what to expect as you proceed. Some of the questions you may want to ask include: • What is the fastest you have turned a custom machined tool, and the finished product around for a client? • What methods of molding do you offer? Have you used overmolding in the past to create more durable products? • What hours does your production line operate? Does production stop each day? A dedicated experienced manufacturer, like Rubber Industries, operate around the clock to offer fast production. Others keep normal business hours, limiting the amount of products they can make each day. Select a Partner with Domestic Offices Working with a manufacturing partner located overseas can make many experienced purchasing managers anxious. If you would prefer to work with a company that you can visit easily, but also want to get your production costs as low as possible, selecting a partner with domestic and international offices is a perfect solution. At Rubber Industries, we give clients the best of both worlds. Our Minnesota based office is here to work with American customers during business hours and create products for those who prefer to manufacture in the United States. If you are looking for a new manufacturing partner, Rubber Industries can help guide you through the process from conception and design to receiving the finished product, whether it's one prototype part, or millions of parts annually. Our 50 years of successfully serving our customers is our demonstrable guarantee of being your "go-to partner" with your project. How to Keep the Process of Making a Rubber Product Affordable
At times, the initial investment needed to get a rubber component made might prevent you from going forward. While getting your product made might seem like an expensive prospect at the outset, there are ways to help bring down the price and make the process profitable for you. If you’re having trouble with the cost of getting your product made, here are some ways you can keep the process affordable and keep your idea moving towards becoming a reality. Create a Prototype to Raise Funds A rapid prototype of your product allows you to have a physical item to help refine your final product assembly without having to commit to a large production run. Having a product for sales and demonstrations can help you test your custom product and to get your products done and bring them to market. With rapid prototyping, you can have this product in hand in a matter of days or weeks so you can continue to make progress without any long delays. Find Savings Throughout the Manufacturing Process Offsetting the cost of having a custom rubber or silicone mold created is a priority for having a real part to test. There are several ways to manage costs throughout the process to help make the entire process more affordable. Choosing the right kind of molding is one way to keep things affordable. Rubber injection molding typically wastes very little rubber as the rubber is injected into the cavity and allowed to fill the the cavity. An experienced manufacturer like Rubber Industries, Inc., knows where this is likely to happen and will closely monitor the mold during the process to ensure the best possible quality with the most competitive lifecycle cost. Place a Large Order Rubber Industries, Inc can offer a lower price if you are willing to place a larger order, and may also offer a discount on the steel mold if you purchase multiple molds for your projects. The volume of the order allows us to cut expenses during production. For example, if you use the same color throughout a large run, there is no need to stop production and change out the material. This allows the entire run to be done in one pass, saving time and money. Consider Overmolding If your product combines multiple materials, you can avoid assembly costs by using rubber to metal bonded technology during production. Overmolding silicone to aluminum, stainless steel or glass filled nylon allows you to fuse two parts of your design together in a much more permanent bond than glue creates and takes out expensive labor for handling multiple parts while having to deal with the expense of a glue that won't work as well as the heat activated chemical overmolding process. Having both materials made into a part in the same facility saves on both time and money. If you’re looking for ways to make the process of creating your product more affordable, working with an experienced manufacturer can help you in ways you may not have realized. At Rubber Industries, we help clients choose the right material for their budget and keep turnaround times low, so you can start selling your product as fast as possible. Contact us today to get a quote for your production needs. |
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