High Temperature Silicone Rubber Sheets

What are high temperature silicone rubber sheets?

So a good place to start is at the beginning. Silicone sheets come in various formulations of silicone rubber- each carefully engineered to meet strategic performance requirements.

Silicone sheets are available in either bonded or un-bonded formats. This means they come attached to a metal backing or loose on their own. Again- which format you will need will depend on your unique application. Later in this post we will talk about important elements to look for if you require a bonded or metal backed silicone sheet.

Silicone sheets are also available in either smooth or textured formats again dependent on your performance requirements.

United Silicone sheets works universally on both USI as well as competitor equipment.

High temperature silicone rubber sheets will provide superior performance in temperatures up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit.

Where are high temperature silicone rubber sheets used?

You may be wondering- where are high temperature silicone sheets used? In fact, silicone rubber sheets are highly versatile tools used in a number of different ways across a range of industries. Silicone rubber sheets are widely used in product decoration (hot stamp or heat transfer) and heat seal and/or packaging applications as well as in an array of industrial machining processes.

How are Silicone Rubber Sheets used in product or component decoration?

Silicone rubber sheets are widely used in various types of product decoration including both hot stamp and heat transfer decoration on flat, contoured or raised surfaces.

In hot stamp decoration, sheets are used for both full coverage as well as tipping applications. Tipping refers to decoration being applied to a raised service. One example of tipping is when silver foil is applied to raised lettering on credit cards.

In heat transfer decoration –  standard silicone sheets allow contact for applying the full image on a heat transfer label to a part. The use of standard sheets eliminates the need to create a custom die.

Silicone sheets are also used for make-ready or support surfaces when using metal stamping dies. These are often graphic applications requiring and embossed appearance on Flexible Metal. The silicone base compensates for the rigid metal die for each of printing.

How are Silicone Rubber Sheets used heat seal applications?

Silicone sheets are also used in a variety of heat sealing applications. Sheets are used to manufacture seal bars, seal heads and seal support. Silicone sheets can be used to provide support in both blister packaging and in supporting the flange of cups. They are used to make seal bars used in sealing flexible packaging such as bags and pouches. Silicone sheets are also used to create seal heads for packaging bowls and cups.

What are additional applications for Silicone Rubber Sheets?

Silicone rubber sheets are so versatile that they are used in a wide range of industrial applications. Their ability to provide a good grip and non-marring surface make silicone sheets well-suited for use in adaptive grippers and end of arm tooling for robotic systems. United Silicone´s unbonded sheet (silicone with no metal backing) can be used to produce gaskets for heat-sealing and packaging applications.

What general benefits do Silicone Rubber Sheets provide?

As an extremely versatile tool- silicone sheets have a number of compelling general benefits. Silicone sheets are able to conform to part shapes – including flat, cylinder, slightly conical and simple compound curves for a wide range of applications. Sheets are often machined into smaller components without the expense of custom tooling. Third- silicone sheets are ideal for testing silicone thickness and durometer in prototypes before committing to custom tooling or other ready-to-use custom parts. Finally, silicone rubber sheets provide a perfect non-marring surface for applications like end of arm tooling.

What special benefits to Silicone Rubber Sheets from United Silicone provide?

In addition to these general benefits of silicone rubber sheets- there are key performance benefits that are unique to United Silicone sheets. If you look at it- Silicone is right in our name. Since our company founding more than 40 years ago – we have been a leader in silicone-to-metal bond technology with our silicone rubber sheets, dies and rollers.

Benefits unique to United Silicone sheets include superior heat properties, market-leading adhesion, wide range of specifications and superior repeatability.

-Superior Heat Properties

United Silicone offers a wide variety of silicone rubber materials capable of meeting the most challenging requirements for heat tolerance and thermal conductivity. Not all compliant materials are created equal. Urethane, viton and other elastomers cannot withstand the temperature United Silicone´s silicone rubber formulations can. Our Ultrasil formulation is good for demanding vertical & peripheral operations requiring high temperatures and/or pressure and are resistant to compression stress. Our Thermsoil formulation offers stable high temperatures and rapid heat recovery for automated sealing applications.

-Market-Leading Adhesion

United Silicone uses a proprietary manufacturing process to bond silicone to the steel or aluminum backing. In addition to providing superior silicone-to-metal bonds, this proprietary process eliminates de-lamination worries along with the hassle of messy adhesives.

-Superior Repeatability

United Silicone´s Silicone Rubber Sheets provide superior repeatability. Our precision grinding capability allows us to prepare sheets with plus or minus 0.010″ tolerance as standard. This high precision sheet grinding provides our sheets a blemish-free surface finish that ensures performance is highly repeatable.

-Market-Leading Range of Options

At United Silicone, we are proud to offer a market-leading range of high performance silicone rubber sheets. We offer a variety of silicone formulations as well as options for sheet hardness (referred to as durometer), thickness and sizes. We also offer a range of metal options in terms of material selection and thickness. This allows us to provide a range of mounting options to best meet customers varied needs.

What types of heat resistant silicone sheet formulations does United Silicone provide?

United Silicone offers three different silicone formulations each carefully engineered to meet specific performance requirements. Our Ultrasil Formulation is well-suited for demanding vertical and peripheral applications that require temperatures as high as 550 degrees Farenheit and/or high pressure. Typically Ultrasil is used in manually fed situations. Our second silicone formulation is called Thermosil. Like- Ultrasil, Thermosil offers exceptional heat resistance up to 550 degrees farenheit. Thermosil also offers rapid heat recovery- making it well-suited to automated applications. Finally- our third silicone formulation is the FDA-3A. This formulation meets class 3A Sanitary- Class 1 test specifications and is ideally suited for food and medical applications.

Market-Leading Expertise: Getting It Right from the Start

United Silicone´s market-leading expertise in silicone sheets allows our experts to anticipate and answer key questions like:

• How do I avoid air entrapment?
• What durometer is best for my application?
• Given the height of my raised graphics- which silicone thickness do I need?
• Which silicone formulation is best for the long dwell times required for Polyfuze?
• How can proper silicone durometer selection help me reduce the appearance of a heat mark in heat transfer applications?

Our experts have market-leading expertise to choose the right sheet for your unique application. We can point you in the right direction in your silicone selection- ensuring you get it right from the start.  We can help you identify the best durometer and other key characteristics for your unique application.

Where can I purchase United Silicone High Temperature Silicone Rubber Sheets?

United Silicone is proud to partner with Industrial Specialties Manufacturing – commonly known as ISM- our official distributor of United Silicone’s Sheets. ISM maintains stock of our most frequently used silicone sheets- enabling them to respond quickly to customer needs. With ISM- you know you are getting genuine United Silicone excellence- in the speediest possible way.

Would you like to know more?

Please get in touch. We would love to hear from you.