How To Cut Silicone Rubber
Lasers are often used as it’s believed they will produce the smoothest finishes, however the best tools to use to cut Silicone are Silicone Die Cutting, Rotary Die Cutting and Knife Slitting. The reason why is explained furtherdown.
Silicone rubber is quite possibly one of the most-used materials in industry, especially the converting industry. It is rare, if not impossible, for you to avoid coming across silicone in your day to day life.
To start with, silicone rubber is easily one of the most customizable products within the rubber industry. Silicone rubber can be customised to meet a number of applications. Applications differing in requirements of properties ranging from resistance to low temperatures to high-tear strength.
While the variety of available specifications do make it easy to see how silicone rubber can be customized in terms of its physical properties, it is worth noting that color is also not a limiting factor. Silicone rubber can easily be dyed a wide pallette of colors, making it ideal for use in food and medical applications.
Yet another reason why silicone rubber is so ubiquitous is because of the countless products that can be made using it – from gaskets to o-rings, window seals and even slush machines – it is safe to say that silicone is incredibly versatile in industries ranging from medical to aerospace.
If you need to cut silicone rubber,then you need to make sure that you find the right company who has vast experience, proven results, and has invested in the right industry applications. This is exactly why we feel confident you will be satisfied with Advanced Technology Supply.
These are the best tools to use to cut Silicone:
Silicone Die Cutting
With die cutting, gaskets are often used with a hydraulic press so that the material can be formed out of large rolls. The raw material can be used for anything. The press usually houses the die and when it is in operation, it then presses itself into the material, cutting to whatever design is needed for the application. Usually, the dies are made out of steel rules which have a very long-lasting life. They are also very much suited to mass production as well. The great thing about die cutters is that they are able to make thousands of products every hour. The low tooling cost is great for orders that have to be completed at high volume, and you also have the design tolerance, which can be down to a tenth, to a thousandth of an inch.
Rotary Die Cutting
Die-cutting, as mentioned above, uses a steel rule to stamp out any blank parts. It’s very similar to a cookie-cutter. The process is able to cut complex shapes out of many materials, with the most popular ones being foam, rubber, plastic, cork and silicone rubber. It is possible for rotary die cuts to be used with or without any kind of adhesive. During the process, a machined die will rotate against the mandrel. It allows for a tight tolerance, and you can also have a high level of repeatability for thinner gauges. This is very effective for high-volume runs.
Knife Slitting
One of the precision cutting techniques used by ATS is Knife-Slitting, which we use custom-slit rolls. We have the ability to slice a master log into custom logs, that are a range of widths and tolerances. We can also set the machine so that each one is the exact same size to speed up the process. We produce fast and consistent cuts every time and this makes it easier than ever for our customers to get the results they are looking for.
So, it is very easy to make sure that you are getting the best result out of your silicone rubber cutting process, and if you use the right method, you will soon see that it is faster than ever for you to get what you need.