Gaskets are a component of many modern day items. Fabricators produce them of a variety of materials. While metal remains popular, one of the common materials used by fabricators is rubber. However, increasingly, fabricators and manufacturers are discovering the advantages of using, instead, silicone (polysiloxane polymer) in elastomer form – otherwise known as silicone rubber. A gasket from this material provides its component with certain desirable properties.
Why Is Silicone Rubber the Best Choice?
Whether you are producing a freezer seal or are creating a gasket for outdoor electrical applications, it is easy to see why silicone rubber is a natural choice. Selection of this material over others usually lies in its physical properties. The combination of silicone and rubber creates an improved and enhanced product. This qualities manufacturers and fabricators perceive as desirable are:
* High heat and cold resistance – able to maintain flexibility and compressibility at extreme low temperatures and does not become deformed or melt at extreme high temperatures
* Chemically inert with good release properties
* Fair gas and vapor permeability
* Repels water
* Exceptional weatherability against such things as ozone gas and UV rays
* Moisture and steam resistant
* Outstanding resistance to oil, solvents and various chemicals
* High insulation resistance
* Non-corrosive
* Compression set resistance – although easy to compress (compared to metal), silicone rubber is more durable than many composite materials
* Low toxicity – it is one of the cleanest elastomers in current usage. As such, the silicone rubber gasket and related components are ideal for medical and scientific industrial applications
In addition to these properties, fabricators and manufacturers alike are appreciative of the materials long shelf life.
Applications
Silicone rubber is a synthetic material that finds employment in multiple applications. It versatility is visible in the few industrial applications supplied below:
* Aerospace – seals for space shuttles
* Appliances – seals for refrigerators
* Agriculture
* Automotive industries
* Chemical
* Construction
* Electronics (keyboards)
* Energy (insulators)
* Food handling – food-safe surfaces and protective pads on food processing equipment
* Medical – diaphragms
Silicone rubber makes its way into many aspects of our life without our realizing it. From sealing industrial equipment to protecting food-processing machinery, silicone rubber is there.
The Unpretentious Silicone Rubber Gasket
Silicone rubber, whether in rubber sheet or foam form is really rather unpretentious. Yet, that single sheet can transform itself into a variety of useful applications – ones that make their way into our everyday life and beyond into scientific research and exploration. No matter what the application, silicone brings higher heat resistance, good releasability and consistent compression and it can fit all of this into a simple silicone rubber gasket.
