What Is Better, Natural Rubber or Silicone?
Many buyers want one “best rubber.” That shortcut causes leaks, complaints, and reorders when the environment punishes the wrong material. Natural rubber is better when you need high tear strength, strong rebound, and shock damping at moderate temperatures, mostly indoors. Silicone is better when heat, UV, ozone, weather, and hygiene drive risk, and when you […]
What is the difference between silicone rubber and natural rubber?
Many buyers treat rubber as one category. Many projects fail when heat, ozone, or oil attacks the wrong rubber and the seal loses contact. Silicone rubber is a synthetic elastomer built for wide temperature stability and weather resistance, while natural rubber is a bio-based elastomer known for strong elasticity and tear strength but weaker heat, […]
Why Do Rubber Wheels Debond?
A rubber wheel can look fine, then the tread slips on the core. The cart shakes, noise rises, and the floor gets marks. Buyers then blame “bad rubber,” but the real cause is often hidden. Rubber wheels debond when the rubber-to-core bond loses strength faster than the wheel load and heat allow, due to surface […]
What Is a Salt Spray Test for Rubber Parts?
A rubber part can pass dimensional checks and still fail outside. Salt mist can attack metal inserts, coatings, and bonds, and then the whole assembly starts leaking or loosening. A salt spray test exposes rubber parts (often with metal inserts, clamps, or coatings) to a controlled salt fog to evaluate corrosion risk and related failures […]
What Is a Tightness Test for Rubber Hose?
A hose can look strong and still leak at the crimp, the liner, or the bend. A small leak can stop an entire system. A tightness test for a rubber hose checks whether the hose and its end fittings can hold pressure without unacceptable leakage under defined conditions like pressure, time, temperature, and test media. […]
What is the rubber quality control test?
Many rubber parts look fine to the eye, but fail in service because nobody tested the right things before shipment. Rubber quality control tests are a set of standard lab and production checks that verify material, dimensions, and performance, so every batch of rubber parts works safely and consistently in real applications. Rubber quality control […]
What is the TGA test for rubber products?
Many rubber parts look similar, but the compound inside can be totally different and even unknown. The TGA test (thermogravimetric analysis) for rubber measures weight loss of a sample as temperature rises, so we can understand polymer type, fillers, volatiles, and thermal stability in a rubber compound. Thermogravimetric analysis of rubber When I work with […]
What are the tensile tests for rubber?
Many rubber parts fail not because of hardness, but because the material cannot stretch and recover as the design expects. Tensile tests for rubber measure how much force and stretch a rubber sample can take before it breaks, so engineers and buyers can judge strength, flexibility, and safety margins for real applications. Tensile testing of […]
Is silicone steam proof?
Many engineers think silicone is “magic” and will survive any heat and steam. I know how painful it is when that belief ends in leaks and unplanned shutdown. Silicone is not fully steam proof. It works in mild, low-pressure steam and short cycles, but in long-term, high-pressure steam it ages much faster than in dry […]
Is EPDM good for steam?
Steam looks harmless as “hot water”, but I have seen it destroy the wrong rubber gasket in a few weeks and stop a boiler or HVAC system. EPDM is usually very good for low- to medium-pressure saturated steam up to around 150 °C, if you use a steam-grade compound and keep it away from oils, […]
