There are few industries that depend more on machinery and equipment than mining. If you work in the mining industry, you know that your equipment is going to be pushed to the limits, as far as Mother Nature and the law will allow. So, it goes without saying that the mining tools and equipment used must be resilient and durable above all else.

In the dusty, dirty, hazardous, and harsh environments of mining, the equipment designers and manufacturers are increasingly paying more attention to the “little things”; like machine components that help the big machines perform better and for longer.

This is where cast urethane mining parts come in. (And the key is to find a dependable manufacturer to work with.)

Urethane Mining Industry: Why the Modern Mining Industry Prefers Urethane

Urethane or to be more specific, cast polyurethane parts have always been known for their incredible properties, such as:

  • Abrasion resistance
  • Unmatched resilience
  • High load-bearing capacity
  • Impact strength.

Now, as mining designers and manufacturers are looking for ways to increase the longevity and performance of mining equipment, urethane has naturally become a preferred choice.

One of the biggest advantages of using urethane mining parts is that it’s super flexible; not just in physical performance (like rubber), but also because it comes in a liquid form. Liquid urethane allows the combination of different formulations, in addition to metering, and dispensing it with unparalleled precision.

This unique process allows the making of urethane mining parts into any form, density, or weight. This is while still ensuring the component stays completely uniform and consistent throughout the entire run. In addition, when compared to plastics and other elastomers, urethane offers far more versatility, durability, toughness, and strength in reduced costs.

Imagine the flexibility and resiliency of rubber combined with the performance benefits of metals and engineered plastics – that’s urethane. Tweaking of this material due to its sheer adjustable nature of the chemical properties is easy in order to provide several new opportunities to address performance problems that other materials simply can’t solve.

And if that’s not enough, urethane mining parts are much less likely to fail due to deterioration, abrasion, and other forms of damage. Unlike other materials. Cast polyurethane parts will deliver a much superior long-term value to end customers.

Another great benefit of urethane mining parts is their molding and bonding ability to multiple different kinds of substrates such as fiberglass, aluminum, and steel. This allows for added rigidity and strength if necessary.

Talk to Uniflex Inc., The Industry Experts, About Urethane Mining

Cast urethane mining parts created at Uniflex Inc. can be custom molded for both low and high-volume production. They are also available in a wide range of hardness’s (durometers). We can cast parts that are as small as a few ounces or as large as hundreds of pounds. If you have any questions or concerns about the urethane mining industry and parts, please call us at 248-486-6000 or contact us online and our representatives will get back to you shortly.

Polyurethane is one of the most versatile materials that manufacturers today use. Molding it into almost any shape for utilization across many different industries is possible. You can use custom molded urethane or polyurethane repeatedly in some of the most adverse environments without worrying about it wearing out or being significantly damaged.

Polyurethane is also resistant to high temperatures, electricity, abrasion, corrosion, and many other environmental factors. The versatility of polyurethane has made it a material of choice for a variety of applications across industries.

If you are looking for custom molded polyurethane, it is best to first get a clear idea about the products produced by it and its overall usability. In this short guide, we will break down everything you need to know about this highly useful compound.

What Is Custom Molded Urethane?

When polyurethane undergoes a molding process to take a desired shape and specification, it is referred to as molded urethane or custom molded urethane. Since it can take various forms, the molding process usually varies depending on the end-use of the products produced. Here are a few common techniques that the industry throughout uses:

Compression Molding

In this process, the placement of the liquid polyurethane or millable gum polyurethane into a multiple-plate mold occurs. Once inside the mold, the plates sandwich the urethane compound between them. And, a heated hydraulic press forces the plates together. The extreme pressure and heat of the press force the polyurethane to fill the shape of the enclosed cavity formed by the plates, curing it in the process. This molding process allows for a much more refined end product compared to other techniques; however, it tends to be more expensive as well. Compression molding’s often usage happens in the making of polyurethane seals, bushings, gaskets, and other critical products.

Open Cast Molding

This process involves pouring liquid polyurethane into a mold. It is a relatively inexpensive process that leads to highly durable products. Opencast molding tends to be the most common technique when it comes to making cast urethane elastomer products.

Centrifugal Molding

Also known as spin casting, this process occurs when the liquid polyurethane material is placed inside the center pot of a spinning mold. Channels allow the material to flow to mold cavities using centrifugal force, eliminating air in the process through vents. This process is not suitable for molding large-sized components and parts, and it can be expensive. However, it does produce bubble-free parts if there is a requirement.

Injecting

custom molded urethane

In this injection method, the liquid (or the hardened droplets) of polyurethane material will shoot into a mold at a very high pressure using an injection molding press. By injecting the liquid into the mold, shaping the polyurethane into almost any design is possible. This process can be cost-efficient because injecting liquid thermoplastic urethane resin is quick and automatization is attainable. Plus, any material waste that occurs in the process can go through the recycling process and its repeated usage is possible. However, injection molds tend to be very expensive and their usage only happens when production volume is incredibly high (e.g., 20,000+ pieces)

Foaming

During the foaming process, the mixed polyurethane material will set and fill out a mold. While the process can take a long time to complete, the end result is a material that is full of air and fiber. And, its usage is common when it comes to mattresses, pillows, seat cushions, adhesive foam strips, etc.

Want to Know More About Custom Molded Urethane? Call Uniflex Inc!

At Uniflex Inc., we have helped many industries meet their custom molded urethane needs over the course of our 40 years in business. We can cast any kind of urethane product for any purpose, regardless of which industry you work in.

Our unmatched precision, attention to detail, and superior quality have helped us become a leading manufacturer and supplier of molded polyurethane in the US. If you have questions or concerns you can call us at 248-486-6000 or fill out this online contact form.

Molded urethane is a plastic material whose creation stems from the chemical reaction between prepolymer resins and specialized curing agents. Products and parts made from molded urethane offer incredible chemical resistance, flexibility, and durability. If you’re wondering what custom molded urethane is, you’ve come to the right place! In this short guide, we will provide you useful insights about this versatile material that a wide spectrum of industries uses, in addition to using it for numerous applications.

What Is Custom Molded Urethane?

The usage of custom molded urethane products is common when it comes to using them for several industrial purposes. For example, for seals, bushings, rollers, and bumpers. The usage of this tailorable polymer occurs when making small, molded parts like washers all the way up to large multi-hundred-pound components.

Urethane starts as a viscous, liquid prepolymer that we must heat and mix in with a curing agent so the chemical reaction can occur. Urethane is relatively stable and tends to be resistant to most chemicals as well as impingement.  Many manufacturers also use additives to improve UV resistance, increase flame retardation, and reduce friction.

When liquid urethane is injected or poured into a mold, the “molded” urethane products take shape. A reaction between prepolymer and curing agent causes the urethane to polymerize and harden. Most times, to ensure lasting quality, these molded products are cured in industrial ovens as well as hot on hot tables. To know more about what custom molded urethane is, you should talk to a dedicated manufacturer with expertise in thermoset plastics, such as Uniflex Inc.

Are Custom Molded Urethane Products Customizable?

If you’re looking for a versatile solution for your manufacturing needs, custom-molded urethane can be a great option. It’s unmatchable in terms of:

  • Chemical resistance
  • Scraping abrasion resistance
  • High impact resiliency
  • Vibration dampening
  • And much more

But the best part is, we can mold urethane into a plethora of products due to its liquid starting state. This allows the polyurethane material to fill the cavity of pretty much any mold. In other words, urethane has the ability to take shapes that other materials can’t.

We can customize custom molded urethane parts for specific applications by simply adjusting formulations to change the physical properties and hardness (durometer).

what is custom molded urethane

Compared to other similar compounds like rubber, urethane has the most versatility. While rubber and other compounds are sometimes vital for certain applications, molded urethane serves as the cheaper and more durable option when it comes to most parts.

In addition to customization, there are numerous other benefits of choosing custom molded urethane to manufacture your parts. For starters, it offers lower-cost tooling. This generally makes urethane costs much lower than rubber molding which requires higher-cost compression molds.

The molding process of urethane is capable of forming parts without any need for costly injection molds. It is extremely precise and can work with a wide range of part sizes. Moreover, urethane molded parts need little to no additional finishing so there is an incredibly fast turnaround time as well.

Talk To Our Dedicated Experts At Uniflex Inc.

At Uniflex Inc., we create custom molded urethane parts for your specific needs.

We can cast a variety of tailored, molded urethane products for multiple purposes with meticulous precision and superior quality. If you have more questions related to what custom molded urethane is, or how it can help you save time and money on your project, call us today at 248-486-6000 or contact us online.

What do you expect from the company that supplies Urethane, Rubber, Fiberglass, Expansion Joints?

Uniflex Inc describes itself in many different ways:

  • (In the footer) Uniflex Inc. manufactures and distributes urethane, plastics, rubber, and fiberglass products; they are delivered to worldwide automotive, aerospace, and rail system manufacturers.
  • (In our about us) As one of the midwest’s largest molders of urethane and rubber products, Uniflex stands ready to design and build an infinite number of parts for a myriad of solutions.
  • (On Facebook – come like us) Custom Molded Urethane components, plastic sheet rod and tube, fiberglass grating and structural, metal and rubber expansion joints, metal and rubber hose, gas and electric protective sleeves, and fuse separators.

What can we supply you with?  Our service and our expertise can help drive your companies’ innovation.

We are starting a new contest. We would like to see what our customers are using in the place of business. Participate by posting a picture or adding a comment. And, you can enter into a drawing for a $10 Amazon gift card.

Uniflex has been servicing the ‪utility‬ companies with their need for exposed gas line protection and electric utility safety/tagging device needs. Our patented Servgard coupling kits come in three sizes to fit the most exposed gas line, temporary, protection needs.

Go here to post your picture or participate.

Custom injection molding has been a boon for businesses that need high-volume intricate parts while keeping the cost-per-unit low. Today, almost all mass-production processes around the world use plastic injection molding to create single part thousands – or even millions – of times in one cycle.

Obviously, the main advantage of custom injection molding is that it allows you to scale production as a whole. Once you deal with the initial costs, the price-per-unit during the manufacturing process becomes exceptionally low. If you decide to produce more parts, the price will drop even more.

How to Choose the Best Plastic Custom Injection Molding Company

Before you choose any material or make any key decisions, you need to understand how plastic molding works. This process utilizes plastic resins or polymers that are heated, melted, and injected under high pressure to create a mold tailored to your specifications.

To ensure the mold can withstand high temperatures and intense pressure, it usually consists of solid steel or aluminum. Once you inject the melted resin into the mold, it cools and solidifies in the shape of your finished product, and then finally ejected from the mold.

When you are looking for a custom injection molding company to manufacture your products, you want to be sure that they can adhere to your specific proportions or measurements. To put it simply, the company must be able to produce exactly what you want, the way you want it.

If you want a specific logo, design, size, color, or packaging, your custom injection molding manufacturer must be able to provide it all for you, with a reasonable fee. For best and most cost-effective results, they must be able to do the prototyping, molding, tooling, stamping, and welding on the molded plastic under one roof.

Here are a few factors you need to look out for when hiring a manufacturing partner:

They Should Be Focused On Cost-Effectiveness & Efficiency

How long have they’ve been in the industry? Do they have experience producing products similar to yours? Who were their previous clients? In addition, to be able to comply with all your specifications, they must be well established in providing the best customer service possible – and this can only happen if they own state-of-the-art equipment to work in a reliable and fast manner.

Look at their finished products: are they smooth, with no requirement for further finishing? Or do they have unwanted, sharp edges?

Equipped With Adequate Climate Control Systems

The climate of the manufacturing facility plays a critical role in the overall production. Make sure the company’s factory has an efficient cooling (or heating) system in place for their molds.

Dedicated, Customer-Centric Management Team

Does the company have a system in place to deliver finished products on time? It doesn’t matter how complicated your needs are, your custom injection molding partner must be able to make the delivery.

Your One-Stop Shop for All Custom Injection Molding Needs

The market is full of plastic injection molding manufacturers but only a handful have the capabilities to meet your specifications and help you save money and time during production. At Uniflex Inc., we proudly stand behind our promise of helping you optimize your production process with quality work. Call us at 248-486-6000 or fill out this form to have a chat with us today!

There are different types of injection molds based on their characteristics, such as part capacity, plate amount, and runner system. Understanding what each of these categories means for your injection molding process will help prepare you to choose the right type of mold for your part.

Selecting the correct mold type for your production is critical. This is because it will directly affect your production speed, product quality, and overall costs. Based on different features of the mold, there are several ways to classify it:

Family Mold

This is a single mold base with two or more cavities that allow it to produce two or more parts at the same time. You can also choose to use shut-offs to isolate production to the cavities you want. For best results in injection molding, we recommend choosing the parts that are similar in resin, shape, size, and estimated volumes. This is especially if you want to run all parts at the same time. If the volumes are low and mold cost is a significant factor, a family mold is an ideal option.

High or Low Cavitation

As you can imagine, a single cavity mold can only produce one part per cycle. These molds are, thus, cost-effective when your part volume is low since they are less expensive to build. They also have a shorter lead time. On the negative side, the piece-part-cost is higher in injection molding production. Then we have multi-cavity molds that can manufacture more parts per cycle, so they have larger capacity and lead to lower piece-per-costs.

Two/Three Plate Molds

These are essentially cold runner tools; the addition of a 3rd plate to the runner system allows you to pinpoint the injection point into nearly any location on the tool. If a hot runner system is too expensive for you, this is a great option. But keep in mind that this type of injection molding is much more difficult to automate.

Hot Runner Molds

These molds utilize a temperature-controlled manifold to eliminate or significantly reduce runner scrap from the cycle. Injection points can be directly into the part or outside the part. This can really improve cycle times; a runner system (or a sprue) is usually a deciding factor on the mold cycle. Plus, it leads to less waste of expensive material.

A temperature controller for the press is necessary for hot runner molds to run, and the controller must be sized properly to match the manifold inside the mold. In some cases it may seem expensive to maintain the mold on a hot runner tool but it almost always pays for itself in the long run through cycle time and material savings, especially in application that require high annual volumes or expensive engineering-grade resins.

Cold Runner Molds

A cold runner mold utilizes runners and sprues to gate into the component. So, as such, it is not as complicated as other methods. But it may lead to slower running cycles and larger volume of wasted material. In most cases, you can re-ground and re-process a percentage of this wasted material for future use.

Let Us Help You Determine the Right Injection Molding Process for You

At Uniflex Inc., we offer in-house tooling solutions so it takes a few days – not weeks – to make the molds you need. We also specialize in running low and medium volume jobs, with a wide range of materials to choose from. If you’re not sure where to get started with injection molding, just give us a call at 248-486-6000 or contact us online and we will be happy to assist.

When you have a custom plastic injection molding project in the works, you first need to find the right manufacturing partner that is reliable and can match your needs. After all, the process of plastic injection molding is never one size fits all. Your needs may vary based on the design of your products, your industry, and your production schedule.

For example, if your project is medium or high-volume, you’ll need injection molding companies that can handle express production on a large scale. Custom parts also tend to require more ingenuity and expertise to make sure your parts are made just right. All projects take access to the expertise, materials, and equipment necessary to create high quality parts.

Choosing the Best Injection Molding Companies

Custom injection molding is all about communication, and that calls for commitment from you as well as your manufacturing partner. Sometimes production changes occur at the last minute, or designs need to be adapted. So, you need to think about the people that you’ll be working with – and not just the products you will need. That way, you will avoid headaches and delays that come with a communication breakdown.

Here are a few ways to help you find the right injection molding companies that will be just as invested in your project as you:

Consider Their Capabilities & Material Availability

The intricacy of your project will greatly affect your choice of molding partner. The company you pick should have the capabilities and experience working with the materials you have selected. Ask them the following questions to ascertain this:

  • Do you have qualified team members who have experience with similar projects?
  • Do you have the proper equipment to meet all of the program requirements (such as material handling, injection molding machines, automation, etc.)?
  • Does your factory adhere to the necessary regulatory requirements (i.e., FDA, ISO, etc.)?
  • Do you have experience working with the specific materials and resin?
  • Do you have processes and systems in place for larger volume programs, to successfully manage the flow of materials?

Have They Obtained ISO Certification?

Regardless of your production needs, you want to work with a manufacturer who holds a certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO certification is difficult to obtain. So, this will ensure you that the injection molding companies who have it are committed to product quality and will create a reliable product for you.

Do They Have Adequate Experience?

With experience comes the ability to anticipate problems and create solutions in advance. Find injection molding companies that have experience manufacturing products similar to the one you’re trying to make. This experience will not only bring valuable expertise to your project, but also ensure that they have the infrastructure and equipment required to do the kind of work you need.

Choose A Manufacturing Partner You Can Trust

It is vital to choose injection molding companies that you can work with productively. Plus, they need to guarantee the delivery of exceptional-quality products. At Uniflex Inc., we make sure that you have access to the quality of work that you need. To know more, please give us a call at 248-486-6000 or send us a message here.