Trelleborg Sealing Solutions showcases HCR compounding at Silicone Expo

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions showcases high-consistency silicone rubber compounding and component development at Silicone Expo Europe, on stand 610 of RAI in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on 28-29 February 2024.

Trelleborg supplies its own bespoke silicone rubber compounds as well as producing complex manufactured silicone rubber components, a capability expanded by the recent integration of UK-based Primasil Silicones, part of Minnesota Rubber and Plastics, which Trelleborg acquired in 2023.

The ability to design, formulate, test and process bespoke high-consistency silicone rubber (HCR) compounds allows Trelleborg to create grades for industries such as healthcare & medical.

In conjunction with HCR silicone compounding, Trelleborg also undertakes all associated silicone rubber processing from compression moulding to complex injection moulding, extrusion, calendaring and specialist production techniques.

Paul Sharples, product manager, says: “Trelleborg Sealing Solutions is the only supplier of silicone rubber components in the UK to have all services based in one UK location. In addition, our silicone capabilities are supported by a global network of production, research and design.

“Our unique competencies in specialist complex manufacturing allow us to produce components such as the Paxman cooling cap, a solution developed for scalp-cooling technology that helps chemotherapy patients minimise the side effect of hair loss.

“The lightweight cold cap is manufactured from medical-grade, silicone rubber designed to provide a close fit around the patient’s head. Coolant circulates through the cap to reduce blood flow at the scalp and protect hair follicles from the chemotherapy.”

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions offers a comprehensive array of innovative silicone rubber production methods from a global network of facilities.

Trelleborg’s Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) experts employ highly sophisticated tools and process engineering to develop novel solutions that combine two, three or more individual materials and components into one fully bonded, robust component. This multicomponent injection moulding, or co-injection, lowers costs by cutting out assembly and reducing the number of components in the customer’s supply chain.

Andrew Thomas, technical manager, said: “Multicomponent moulding can extend design options further than any other technology, enabling device developers the opportunity to go beyond simple function. Virtually boundless product profiles and geometries offer medical device designers options that they may not even be aware of.”

A related technology – micromoulding - is critical to the miniaturisation of devices so small they are wearable and implantable. Components below 10 milligrams in weight are possible using needlepoint injection technology and fully automated parts handling. 

Thomas adds: “With the development of ever smaller sophisticated medical devices, component manufacturers are challenged to produce multi-function devices of increasingly compact dimensions. Micromoulding and multicomponent LSR technologies provide a solution to this issue.”

Trelleborg's proprietary GeoTrans extrusion process enables the creation of an even greater variety of tubing geometries by changing the cross-section during the extrusion process to eliminate moulding and secondary bonding steps, providing a strong, hygienic design. The process allows shapes like balloons, transition between a single tube and multiple tubes, and bumps and tapers, combining a variable outer diameter with either a constant or variable inner diameter.