Industrial & Manufacturing Blog
Modern industry needs to meet exacting environmental standards and satisfy customers at the same time. This has spurred materials scientists and petrochemical companies to develop new thermoplastics that can handle demanding temperatures and high pressure conditions, while also being suitable for recycling and reshaping into different forms. In the past, this has been a difficult balance to strike, with recyclable materials often lacking the strength and flexibility required by industrial customers.
However, some thermoplastics offer just such a balance. Manufactured by the oil giant Exxon, Santoprene is a kind of thermoplastic vulcanisate (TPV). It can be easily melted and shaped into extrusions to create custom components and can handle extremes of temperature and pressure. The waste plastic generated during manufacturing processes can also be easily recycled, limiting waste and saving money and energy.
If you can integrate Santoprene into your industrial processes, you could save money and meet complex engineering needs. Here are some applications that might be applicable to your operations.
Create Watertight Weather Seals
Santoprene is one of the most effective materials for use in creating weather seals and is widely employed by the automotive sector to ensure that automatic windows are watertight. But the uses of weather seals go beyond cars. Santoprene can be used to make double-glazed windows more energy efficient and is also used in gasket heads to regulate flow effectively.
Make Your Products Mobile
Another use for Santoprene is in castors and rollers. Because of its hard-wearing properties, Santoprene is the ideal material to use with computer tables, luggage, trolleys and medical equipment. Whenever you need to make equipment mobile and rugged, it's a sensible material to use.
Add Grip to Sporting Items
Santoprene is also regularly used in sporting goods to provide extra grip, and it's often used in Australian cricket bat grips, as well as golf clubs and baseball bats. By using TPV Santoprene extrusions, equipment makers can easily shape the material into tubes with precise dimensions and grip patterns, while it is flexible and strong enough to slip over bats and club shafts without tearing.
Create Custom Made Industrial Plumbing Components
Santoprene TPV may have plenty of manufacturing applications, but its most common use is in creating ducts, piping and valves for industrial processes. For example, Santoprene is often used in industrial hoses that need to be flexible and transport volatile fluids or gases. It resists corrosion by acids, can handle high temperatures and won't crack as it ages, making it popular with chemical processors and food and drink manufacturers. Piping and hoses can also be shaped into whatever form manufacturers require via extrusion processes, allowing them to develop TPV components that are tailored to their needs.
If you need temperature resistant piping, deal with corrosive fluids or want to integrate Santoprene into your products, it could be a great way to save money and improve the efficiency of your industrial processes. Contact extrusion specialists to find out how to create the right plastic components to meet your industrial needs.
Share22 August 2016
Almost everybody engages with industry and manufacturing in some way or another. You may work in the manufacturing industry, you may source industrial goods for your business, you may buy housing materials, or you may simply use the products created by these industries. Regardless of how directly or tangentially you are connected to industrial and manufacturing concepts, I think there will be posts in this blog that appeal to you. Hi! My name is Jeb, and in this blog, I am going to cover virtually anything and everything about these two ideas. I hope you don't mind if I write whatever appeals to me on a day-to-day basis related to what I've been thinking of or what I've read in the news or trade journals.