Silicone rubber is a key sealing material in a wide range of industries including medical, aerospace, automotive, electronics and more. Because of its many unique and optimal qualities, silicone rubber is often sought after for a variety of applications.
Apple Rubber utilizes many complex technologies to take full advantage of silicone sealing capabilities, manufacturing everything from simple seals to the most complex parts. Here are the major benefits of silicone rubber that you should consider when selecting a sealing material:
High-Quality Sealing Material
Best known for its excellent thermal stability, silicone rubber can withstand extremely high and low temperatures. In low-temperature conditions, silicone retains its flexibility, making it an optimal material choice for applications in extreme temperature environments.
Along with temperature resistance, silicone also has resistant properties for many other materials, including acids, bases, chemicals, water, oil and fungus. Even with all of these resistant properties, this quality rubber is non-toxic, making it a trusted sealing material for consumer products and medical devices.
Sterilization Abilities
Silicone rubber is compatible with FDA regulations and can undergo many different sterilization methods. Some of these practices include dry heat, steam autoclaving, ethylene oxide, gamma radiation and electron beams. These sterilization methods allow silicone to be eligible for use in the medical industry and be deemed a medical grade material.
Apple rubber utilizes silicone rubber as a top sealing material for the medical industry, engineering parts and seals for dialyzers, medical pumps, IV components, feeding devices and implant material. Using an ISO Classified cleanroom, Apple Rubber manufactures and tests sterile silicone rubber seals for medical grade classification in order to be sent out for use in the medical industry.
Extremely Versatile
Silicone is easy to mold and customize, making it great for custom molded shapes and specific applications with unique requirements. By slightly adjusting the compound recipe, the seal can obtain more resistance properties, like water and temperature resistance. It can also be manufactured translucent or any color imaginable, even glow in the dark green. Because of its versatility, silicone is often chosen for innovative models and testing for design engineers.
To achieve complex molded shapes, liquid silicone rubber (LSR) is used. This two-part platinum cured elastomer is injected into a mold cavity and then manufactured into a part. There are many different types of LSR compounds that offer a variety of unique benefits, including medical grade, self-lubricating, conductive, self-bonding, radio-opaque and more.
Apple Rubber offers state-of-the-art molding capabilities for silicone parts and seals. Even the most complex parts can be consistently manufactured using advanced technologies and processes, like injection molding and compression molding.
High-Performing Rubber
Silicone is known for its retention of flexibility and low compression set in extreme heat or cold. Silicone rubber is very durable and overall, has good mechanical properties. Because of its durability, it is extremely reliable and can be trusted to keep up performance for a long time.
Among other advanced capabilities, silicone rubber also offers great electrical insulation, is flame repellent and has a low chemical reactivity. These qualities are what make silicone an excellent sealing material for a wide range of applications and industries.
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