If you are designing a product with multiple parts, it is important to use custom gaskets as a barrier between any hard surfaces or metallic parts to protect them from rubbing against each other. Without which the environment would create high friction, causing damage to the parts coming together. A flat gasket made out of rubber, will be act as a protective barrier to the flexible and forgiving nature of rubber. With moving parts especially, it is necessary that the reciprocating action of the parts does not layer damage upon damage until the product is rendered ineffective.

Pure Gum Rubber – Commercial Grade – 40A

Pure Gum Rubber – Commercial Grade – 40A

• Has a very high tensile strength
• Can resist most organic salts, ammonia, acids, and alkalis
• Able to operate in temperatures between -20° F and 170° F
• Pure gum rubber can be used for some medical applications
• Not recommended for use with strong caustic oils and chemicals
• Ideal for industrial applications that need good “bounce-back” characteristics from rubber parts

Soft and Elastic: Pure gum rubber is valued for being a softer, more elastic type of rubber. It has a low durometer rating of 35-45, meaning that while it is not a very hard material, it is very elastic. This high elasticity gives it a level of adaptability for various seal and gasket applications that is hard to beat. This flexible rubber material can be stretched further than other elastomers. It is the prime reason why natural gum rubber is used as squeegee blades, industrial skirting, and drum practice pads.

Non-Marking Rubber: A very useful characteristic of pure gum rubber is that it is non-marking. No matter what type of color variation it comes in, brown to light tan, a natural rubber product will not leave any stains or marks on the places where they are used. This feature is especially useful in applications like window cleaning.

After the materials are decided upon, you must decide how to create the elastomer gasket. When deciding which rubber to use and what type of gasket cutters are most effective for your product design. Since a gasket is a function of the equipment or machinery it is used in, the design is completely contingent on the original parts. And questions about the fabrication of the gasket like which firm will cut it, and how it will be made are dependent on the design. A commonly forgotten matter is material tolerances when fabrication does take place. You must take into account the tolerance of the rubber sheets, which will be presented as a plus or minus of the variance of the product from the original specs. This goes for virtually any metric placed on the rubber sheet like: thickness, width, length, durometer, and more. The most used gasket cutters methods are listed below:

• Hand cutting – This process is the most traditional, but time-consuming method. Hand cutting is reserved for less critical applications and prototyping. The tolerances of gaskets that are hand cut will be larger because it is a handmade process.   It also usually includes skilled gasket cutters to ensure that these gaskets are competitive, performance-wise, with products created from machines.
• Die cutting – In contrast with the hand cutting method, die cutting is a fast and effective way to make rubber gaskets. Unique to each particular product, a die cutting machine punches out the shape of each gasket according to the specs provided by the engineers of the product. With the ability to make custom gaskets, the die cutting method is a quick way to produce high volumes of specialized gaskets.  However, this method cannot punch through thicker materials.  Generally, gaskets are able to punch through sheet goods 3/8” or less.
• Water jet cutting – With advances in technology, water jet cutting has created a solution for high volume orders and precision cuts for custom gaskets.  Water jet cutting also eliminates any edge concavity that sometimes happens with die cutting due to the nature of the gasket being punched out of the sheet rubber.  This is the most efficient and precise way of cutting out gaskets.
• Molding a rubber part – Custom fit molds are best for unique jobs with the need for high volume production. Rubber molds can be created for any type of gasket according to your individual specs and needs.

Once you have decided upon how to make a gasket using unique materials and gasket cutting methods, your custom elastomer gasket is just one phone call or email away. Many companies offer gasket cutting abilities to best fit your product. However, for larger gaskets, many companies only allow up to 48”. Rubber-Cal does create gaskets from sheet material up to 72” to accommodate larger format gaskets. A flat gasket will help protect individual parts of your product, especially any moving parts by creating a compressible barrier or seal against two surfaces. A flexible and durable material, rubber gaskets will enhance the life and abilities of your product.

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