Do You Need Bespoke Silicone Rubber Items?

Silicone rubber – it’s all around us, sometimes hidden, sometimes in view. It is used in the aerospace industry, the medical industry, the automotive industry, and many others as well. Your doors and windows may well have silicone rubber seals to keep the cold out and the heat tucked away indoors where it should be. Your car might have some silicone rubber gaskets in there somewhere as well. The examples can easily continue.

But our focus here is on bespoke silicone rubber parts. We’re going to find out what these parts are and whether you might benefit from ordering them.

A bespoke part is one that has been made to specific requirements. This contrasts with something you could pick up as a standard item. In terms of silicone rubber, we can use a gasket as an example of this. We stock many standard gasket sizes for use in many applications. However, these do not suit all projects.

Let’s assume you develop a product that needs gaskets, but you realise that a standard size simply won’t suffice. It could be the wrong shape, size, or even the wrong grade. In this instance, you would need to work out the shape and size of the ideal gasket for the required role. You’d then need to figure out which circumstances your gasket (or indeed any other silicone rubber part) would be exposed to.

For instance, would it regularly encounter extremes of temperature one way or the other? Would it encounter oil, water, chemicals, or other liquids or solids? Would it need to withstand pressure, much as the door seal on an airplane must withstand pressure to be safe to use in that situation?

You can see that the more you know about your product, the easier it will be to answer these questions at the design stage. While in some cases you may choose standard rubber parts (in our example, a gasket) to include in your product, this may not always be the sensible option. Silicone rubber lasts far longer than anything made from regular rubber. It may be pricier, but you’ll get far more impressive results from it.

So, when you know what your silicone rubber gasket must withstand during its lifetime, you can provide exact details of the gasket size, shape, and role. The manufacturer can then design a die to cut the gasket. They would also make sure the correct grade of silicone was used when cutting out the gaskets.

While off the shelf silicone rubber gaskets, sheeting, tubing, and other similar items often work well in various situations, we can see that this may not always be the case. If you need something more specific to produce the required performance and meet the exact standards of that role, then a bespoke silicone rubber part is called for.

Fortunately, it is easier to get that part than you may think. We have extensive experience in this area of silicone rubber products, so we can help.