What is the common elastomeric silicone? here is some tips you can't miss out

常見矽橡膠有哪些?特色用途一篇看懂

Silicone rubber (elastomeric silicone) is no longer an unfamiliar material to most people. It is not difficult to find that silicone rubber is often used in various objects such as kitchen utensils, remote controls, and car dashboards in daily life. However, there are still some people who feel unfamiliar with silicone rubber, and even regard it as the same as rubber. They think that silicone rubber and rubber are very similar in appearance, so they also think that silicone rubber may not be as resistant to high temperature as the rubber in the impression. It is easy to produce toxic substances, and such a misunderstanding makes many people miss out on excellent materials that are actually resistant to high temperatures, crash-proof, and environmentally friendly and non-toxic. The following will take you to know the common types of elastomeric silicone and rubber.
 

The basic type of Elastomeric Silicone

Silicone rubber, also known as elastomeric silicone, has good resistance to high and low-temperature, and the tolerance is generally between -40°c to 220°c. In addition, it is not toxic, so it is suitable for use in the biomedical field and the food industry. Its waterproof properties are also very suitable for the needs of seals. Another major selling point of elastomeric silicone itself is that it is an electrical insulator, so it can provide sealing functions like washers or gaskets and buffering functions like bumpers or spacers in electronic parts while ensuring product stability. Since silicone rubber is not tear-resistant and wear-resistant, it will not be used on objects subject to high-intensity impacts. The common elastomeric silicone classifications are as follows:


High Temperature-Vulcanizing silicone rubber(HTV)

High-temperature vulcanized silicone rubber is a commonly heard solid silicone rubber. This type of elastomeric silicone has good performance in terms of heat and cold resistance and aging resistance. It can be processed into various shapes products by hot pressing molding, extrusion molding, and other molding methods. Its traces can be seen in products ranging from silicone rubber gaskets, structured molding parts and hoses, and O-rings to daily life buttons.
 

Room-Temperature-Vulcanizing silicone rubber (RTV)

Room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber is a type of silicone rubber. RTV is also subdivided into many types, such as dealcohol type, deoxime type belonging to neutral silicone, and so on. Their common feature is that they all have good fluidity and can penetrate into irregular gaps. The non-conductive properties are also often used in the coatings of electronic parts to isolate the parts from air impurities, thereby improving the life of electronic equipment. However, it should be noted that different types of room-temperature vulcanized silicone rubber will also show different corrosiveness on certain substances, so it needs to be used in conjunction with appropriate materials.


Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR)

The raw material of liquid silicone rubber is liquid and has high transparency, so it is very suitable for use in optical equipment; due to its high fluidity, it can completely fill the entire mold, so the production method is mainly injection molding, and the whole process is sealed to ensure the cleanliness of the product. They are suitable for food utensils and human invasive medical equipment with high cleaning requirements, and can also produce complex and highly customized products. However, the cost of liquid silicone rubber is also the highest among the three due to its few raw materials and the high price of the injection machine.
 

The basic type of Rubber

There are dozens of common types of rubber. According to the material, rubber can be divided into two categories: natural rubber and synthetic rubber. However, in order to facilitate the understanding of the general public, usually only the word rubber is used to cover different types of rubber. In fact, each rubber has different heat resistance, cold resistance, friction resistance, elasticity and strength, so there are quite different applications between different rubbers. Let us briefly introduce:


Natural rubber

Natural rubber is the earliest elastic material that was discovered and used. It has been developed for more than a hundred years, and the research and application of rubber has also been quite skilled. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the development and technology of synthetic rubber, although the amount of use exceeds that of natural rubber, some synthetic rubbers are the products of further synthesis of natural rubber, so they still have an irreplaceable key position in the market. The biggest advantage of natural rubber is that it has high ductility and tear resistance, which makes it very suitable for high physical impact occasions, such as tires, rubber shoes, etc. Although natural rubber has low chemical resistance and is susceptible to acid corrosion and sunlight aging, adding antioxidants to it can improve its chemical resistance. With such flexibility and low production costs, natural rubber is a very popular rubber material.
 

Synthetic Rubber

Limited by the low output of natural rubber, low chemical resistance, and the increase in demand for rubber due to the birth of automobiles, the factory has the idea of producing synthetic rubber. When scientists knew that natural rubber was made of isoprene, they synthesized it with other chemicals on this basis, and eventually developed a variety of synthetic rubbers, which have developed dozens of rubbers today. Compared with natural rubber, the tear resistance and physical strength of synthetic rubber are generally inferior to natural rubber, so natural rubber still plays an indispensable role. Common types of synthetic rubber include styrene-butadiene rubber, which is cheap and wear-resistant, with excellent oil resistance, nitrile-butadiene rubber suitable for raw materials of seals, and fluorine rubber with the highest comprehensive performance.
 

Comparison of silicone rubber and rubber

  Feature Advantages Disadvantage Application
HTV Simple process with wide application. Heat and cold , aging resistance. Tolerance of dimension is larger. Fit almost all kinds of Industries like sealing parts and Intravenous Line.
RTV Quick curing at room temperature. Heat and cold resistance, aging resistance, electrical insulation resistance. Corrosive to certain substances. Electronic industry coatings, adhesives, etc.
LSR High transparency and cleaness. Heat and cold resistance, aging resistance, can conquer difficult structure of products. Development cost is higher. High-precision optics, medical, food equipment, etc.
NR Widest usage High wear resistance, elasticity, and high strength. Weather-resistant is weak, and additional additives are required. Tires, shoemaking, etc.
Synthetic Rubber Flexible option of type to choose and method to produce. High chemical resistance, various types of material. Physical strength is slightly weaker. Aerospace industry, automotive industry, electronics industry, food industry seals, etc.


Application area of Elastomeric Silicone

Silicone rubber has stable physical properties and high environmental protection. Therefore, there are many successful cases of replacing rubber materials with silicone rubber in recent years, and the rise of emerging industries such as medical beauty and minimally invasive surgery has made silicone rubber increasingly unshakable.


Aerospace industry

The operating environment of equipment in the aerospace industry is often extreme climates. To maintain the required elasticity of parts at such temperatures, the material selected must be non-silicone rubber. In addition to meeting the needs of the aerospace industry for sealing, silicone rubber can absorb impact while sealing, reduce excess shaking and noise, and ensure the safety of passengers. In addition, the electrical insulation properties of silicone rubber also enable aerospace electronic equipment to operate stably, eliminating the hidden worries of precision instrument failures.


Automotive industry

Due to the properties of silicone rubber match the needs of the automotive industry in many ways, it is widely used in the automotive industry. The temperature of the car engine will fall around 80~90°C, and the high temperature resistance of silicone rubber around 200°C makes it very suitable as an internal part of the car body. At the same time, the compressibility of silicone rubber is also very good, and it often acts as a car pad The role of film and sealing ring.
 

Electronic industry

The most common of remote control buttons are made of silicone rubber. The good elasticity of silicone rubber brings longer service life to related button devices, and the characteristics of silicone rubber itself are non-toxic, skin-friendly and waterproof, so that silicone rubber can be used in instrument panels, buttons, and dustproof gaskets. There are excellent applications in other fields. In addition, although it is not often seen in practice, silicone conductive strips, which play a key role in circuit boards, displays, screens, etc., have better wear resistance than traditional conductive devices, and are also a major application in the electronics industry.

〈Extension Reading:What is silicone zebra connector and how they made?


Food contact industry

In the past, when silicone rubber was not popular, the food industry mostly used plastic or other rubber container storage materials, but the color of the container even faded after use. The rise of silicone rubber has made up for the needs of food safety. It is non-toxic to the human body and has good weather resistance. Using sterilization methods other than ultraviolet rays, it can be reused and maintain the original state of the product. It is not difficult to see its traces in the food industry. Such as seals, silicone rubber tubes, etc.
 

Conclusion

After our introduction, do you have a better idea of the difference between silicone rubber and rubber? Silicone rubber and rubber have similarities, but they are more different from each other. As a more environmentally friendly material, silicone rubber has attracted more attention than ever before. In order to find high-quality silicone rubber materials, it is necessary to pay attention to the raw materials used in the production of silicone rubber. GSUN adopts international silicone raw material manufacturers, such as Shin-Etsu from Japan, Wacker from Germany and Dosil from the USA. It is our insistence to check the raw materials for customers. And in order to take full responsibility for our customers, we provide one-stop service to ensure that every link of silicone rubber production is strictly checked to meet your needs.

Keyword Search

Subscribe to Newsletter

Name
E-mail
TOP