Flexible Solutions

Technological advances in properties of soft, flexible foam and elastomeric materials have continued to advance. These thick, soft, flexible foams and elastomers are ideal materials for sealing, gasketing and cushioning across many industries and applications. They compress, form to irregular surfaces, bend, and flex within an application without damage or de-lamination, but from the perspective of the die cutter, may also introduce challenges when trying to achieve the tight dimensional tolerances common in metal and plastic-molded parts.

BISCO® HT-800 Silicone Screen Gasket for Navigation / Infotainment Module

We have published a new success story!  In this story, the customer required a static seal for a navigation module that would be contained and used on the exterior of a recreational vehicle.  The exterior navigation/infotainment module would be exposed to outdoor elements including extreme temperature swings, rain, wind and dust.  The gasket was required to perform as designed for the life expectancy of the class A RV.  This can be more than 10 years!  

Ever wonder why hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other healthcare providers don’t just use duct tape for bandages, wound care, and device fixation? Well, there are many reasons, but first try sticking it to skin and peeling it off. The main reason is simple: duct tape does not use a medical grade pressure sensitive adhesive.

Medical adhesives must be skin-friendly, non-migratory, with a variable degree of initial tack and peel adhesion. Ease of removal, breathability and durability also differentiate medical adhesives from other types of tapes.

In this newly released application story, a global designer and manufacturer of critical intercommunication devices experienced a gasket failure allowing moisture to leak and compromise the internal components of their console.  

Just about everything that has been engineered is likely to experience vibration. Unfortunately, it has been proven that vibration can be responsible for causing extreme damage to some applications. The source of vibration can come from impact, internal motors or external sources. Vibration happens all around us whether we know it or not. Sometimes it’s evident when you hear buzzing, squeaking, or rattling noises such as when you run your noisy washing machine or dish washer. Other times you may notice the sensation of vibration when you are driving a car over a bumpy road or when you see the cables on a bridge shaking back and forth on a windy day. Most of us experience the harsh impact of an object when we drop our cell phones on the solid ground.

Thermal resistivity and thermal conductivity can be two very important physical features of foam materials to certain applications. Most devices containing electronics must be designed to deal with heat in one way or another. Electronic circuitry operates most reliably at lower temperatures. High operating temperatures decrease the service life of the device or module.  It is critical for designs to either conduct or isolate heat.

When choosing a foam for a product design, one feature that should be considered is the compression set resistance of the foam.  C-Set is one of the most important characteristics to consider, and this blog post answers three basic questions to explain why. 

Silicone elastomers are used in several diverse applications and industries because of its many unique properties. Many of its attractive features include: low compression set at elevated temperatures, flexibility at low temperatures, hydrophobic characteristics, high dielectric strength, low flammability, and can be food grade compliant.

Die-cut Components for Medical Devices

We believe that true stories can tell you more than any fluffy Marketing Materials that we create.  That is why we are sharing two new Case Studies in this blog post.  Both Case Studies explore die-cut solutions that Marian provided to Medical Device Companies.  In this Industry, component quality and reliability is critical.  Additionally, assembly efficiency and cost savings are important to the success of the business.  In these case studies, you will see that Marian is well equipped and prepared to meet the stringent requirements demanded by products in the Medical Device Industry.  Enjoy!  

As medical device designs trend toward including cutting-edge electronics technology and wireless capabilities, EMC is a growing factor in device design.