How TRP Polymer Solutions creates unique and innovate custom rubber products

If you’ve never worked with TRP Polymer Solutions before, you might be wondering how we go about producing custom rubber products. We specialise in working with customers utilising our many years of experience, innovation, and application to develop products to meet their requirements for the most demanding applications. In this article, we give you a detailed walk-through of our complete production process, from design through to full-scale production.

TRP polymer solutions provide a full turnkey solution for all your custom rubber products. There are no secrets or shortcuts to our success. We simply work diligently and collaboratively with you to bring your ideas to fruition.

Our polymer technologists will support you at every stage of the product development process, providing all the skills, knowledge and technical solutions required to bring your custom rubber product designs to volume production. The manufacturing process involves several distinct developmental stages before rubber meets mould.

Conceptual design

The most important phase in the development of any custom rubber products is the initial material formulation. Developing a material that meets the service criteria for the product is critical to every subsequent stage of the product design. Ultimately, an effective material, which is fit for purpose for the application, can make or break the success of your final custom rubber products.

This is why we spend a high percentage of our time perfecting the material specification and formulation. Our technical experts will work closely and collaboratively with you from start to finish. No more so than in these initial stages to forge a detailed understanding of your specific application’s requirements.A great deal of expertise goes into every customer rubber product. Not only do we design and formulate innovative new materials, but we will work with you to test and evaluate these with you to ensure they meet your specifications.

Prototype

Having undertaken extensive materials testing and evaluation, we can then produce prototypes for rigorous real-world testing. In the production of your prototype rubber product, laboratory scale mixed compounds are analysed and tested to help us set objective performance targets. We can complete in-house laboratory testing of materials and produce prototypes of your custom rubber products manufactured from single cavity moulds to refine possible designs prior to commissioning multi-cavity production tooling.

Our expertise in material development is second to none here at TRP polymer solutions. Our particular strength is developing custom rubber products that deliver unrivalled performance at the most extreme temperatures and in the face of highly corrosive chemicals. As such, we can develop highly specific materials that demonstrate the precise physical properties required for the operating conditions of your application.

Pre-production

By the time we reach the pre-production stage, we now have a clear picture of the precise material formulation and its suitability for your application. This should exhibit the required physical properties, as well as optimal cure times and the stabilised dimensional repeatability that enable us to produce your part to specified tolerances.

Your prototype customer rubber product may have undergone rigorous and extended testing before reaching this stage, and we will take your feedback on board with each iteration to ensure our evolving rubber product design meets your exact specifications. Once our prototypes have received your approval, we then begin the all-important pre-production process in preparation for full production.

Pre-production involves producing the multi-cavity mould tools required to allow efficient, timely and repeatable production of your custom rubber products.

Operational

With the rubber design process, prototyping and pre-production finalised, we can then begin the operational production of your custom rubber products. We supply to quick lead-times, as short as 5 days for specialist O-rings and seven days where new tooling is required, and can ramp up production whenever you need it. We also undertake Value Analysis and Value Engineering (VA/VE) to reduce costs wherever possible.

TRP Polymer Solutions has the capacity to develop high or low volumes of O-rings. We have equipped our 40,000 square-foot factory with a wide range of compression moulding presses. These include ten 300mm x 300mm presses, eight 440mm x 440mm presses, twelve 500mm x 500mm presses and four 800mm x 800mm presses. This enables us to achieve those aforementioned rapid lead times and deliver according to your schedule.

We can develop extremely large mouldings, gaskets and seals up to 3m x 2m, including PTFE-protected gaskets for chlorine cells in abrasive chemical environments. We can manufacture large volume mouldings up to 1.2m x 1.2m x 1m using specialised large daylight presses. As well as our extensive compression moulding facilities, we can also use injection moulding and compression transfer moulding to produce your custom rubber products.

Contact TRP Polymer Solutions today

Make TRP Polymer Solutions your custom rubber products supplier of choice. To find out more about our high-quality polymer products and manufacturing processes, or to discuss your requirements in more detail, please contact TRP Polymer Solutions on +44(0)1432 268899 or sales@trp.co.uk.