Facts You Should Know About Silicone Rubber Dies

Have you heard of silicone rubber dies? If not, you’ll find out more about them here. While it’s not necessary to know what they are before ordering your silicone rubber parts, a little knowledge can better help you understand the manufacturing process.

What is a silicone rubber die?

Despite the name, this type of die isn’t made from silicone rubber. Instead, it is made from metal and is designed to cut shapes from a larger piece of silicone rubber. Dies are also used throughout manufacturing to create many other items from different materials.

Gaskets are a great example of die-cut silicone rubber parts

A gasket is a flat item made from standard or silicone rubber. They are commonly used to protect two surfaces from touching or rubbing on each other, which could cause wear, tear, and unwanted friction.

Each gasket is pressed out of a larger sheet. While it is possible to choose from many different types of silicone rubber formulations, the process of stamping out the gaskets with the die is the same.

Silicone rubber dies allow for fast completion of orders

Once the die is ready for use and the silicone rubber formulation is agreed, the cutting process begins. It’s quite possible to handle runs of anything from just one gasket or other part to many thousands. The die doesn’t change throughout this run, so the speed of completion is significant.

Most of the time goes into setting up the machinery that drives the die through the silicone rubber sheeting. Once everything is ready to go, creating those gaskets or parts is far quicker than many people would think.

There’s no heat involved in this process

If you melt silicone rubber and use a mould to create a part, you need to wait for it to cool down before handling it. This doesn’t happen when you use a die.

It also means the completion and shipping times are faster. When the required number of gaskets or other items have been pressed out of the sheet, they can be sent to the customer ready for use.

Customers can get a bespoke die made if required

While there are plenty of standard dies used in creating silicone rubber gaskets and other similar parts, some customers require something that isn’t available off the shelf.

In this case, the manufacturer can make a bespoke die that conforms to the various measurements and tolerances involved. Once the die is approved, the first silicone rubber part is created. If this works as it should, a larger quantity can then be created.

Dies are retained for future use

While there is a cost involved with creating a new die for a bespoke order, this is a one-off cost. If future orders are required for that same part, the die is retrieved and used once again. So, while that initial phase takes a little longer, it’s only required once. After that, the speedy nature of die cutting takes over.