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Looking for sponge rubber gaskets for your machinery, equipment, or custom designed parts? A gasket is a mechanical seal which fills the space between two or more hard and costly surfaces. This is generally to prevent leakage from or into the joined objects while they are under compression. Gaskets also protect moving parts from damage when they meet. If you have an application that has two surfaces, using a closed cell gasket will help fill those irregularities to make a nice tight seal between them.
Rubber sponge should be used in gasket applications where a soft protective seal is necessary. A sheet of rubber sponge gasket materials is composed of cells that contain air. This makes for a sheet that is less dense than solid rubber gasket materials. For example, think of each of the cells as little balloons. Just like balloons, when pressure is applied the balloon will deform to accept the pressure. This is of course all within the tolerance provided with the material. As long as the pressure is not to great, the balloons will not pop and the material will maintain its integrity. A closed cell gasket is made up of many tiny cells that cannot be seen (unlike your household kitchen sponge) from the skin of the sheet.
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Fabricating Closed Cell Gaskets
So how would you go about getting a closed cell gasket made? The first step is getting a drawing together. If your part is easy, say a simple ID and an OD disc, all you would have to do is submit that information in order to receive a formal quote from us. A part like this would most likely be die-cut, meaning a special tool is made to make your part exactly as you request it. However, if your part is more complicated than a simple shape (e.g. rectangular or a square) you will need to submit a drawing. This drawing should show all the dimensions, angles, and radiuses needed on your part. If the dimensions are not provided we will unfortunately not be able to tell the exact tool that will be needed for your part.
After we have your drawing or dimensions in hand we will then determine what method of fabrication should be used to manufacture these parts for you. We can die cut, which means a stamp is made and your parts are cut out of a sheet, somewhat how a cookie cutter works. We can also water jet cut, which means a machine is programmed with your parts dimensions and then cut out with highly pressurized water. Either way, tooling or program fees will have to be paid for along with the cost of the parts.
There are some instances when customers just need a few closed cell gaskets or prototypes made for their application. In this case, having a tool made and having us cut pieces will not be the most cost effective option for you. Say you needed two, three, or even 20 or 30 sponge rubber gaskets, you can simply order a sheet of the required gasket materials and cut the pieces on site yourself. This onsite fabrication can be done with a sharp utility knife and a guide of some sort to make your desired shape. Customers find this option more cost effective, rather than paying for hundreds of parts to be made that will more likely not be used. Buying gasket materials and producing prototypes onsite, if an option, is the least expensive route.
It is very simple to have a custom cut closed cell gasket made especially for your equipment or application. We stock foam rubber gasket materials in many different gauges and turn around time to have custom parts made is fairly quick. If you need a custom gasket made give us a call today!
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