Industrial Rubber Products: Choosing the Right Supplier


Many businesses, whether they be OEM’s, distributors, or those seeking MRO parts and supplies, are often confronted with the task of sourcing a supplier of industrial rubber products. While there are many suppliers in the marketplace, ranging from garage-type operations to full-service providers, selecting a reliable supplier is often not an easy task. This blog provides some helpful tips for choosing a supplier of industrial rubber products.

Tip #1: Match the Supplier’s Capabilities to Your Needs

The range of industrial rubber products available in the marketplace is huge, encompassing everything from gaskets, to grommets, to custom fabricated parts and products. Not all suppliers have the capabilities needed to support a wide product portfolio. While a specialist supplier may be suitable in cases where a single part is required, other situations, such as the sourcing of MRO parts, may require choosing a supplier with a wider range of capabilities and offerings.

Tip #2: It’s all About Experience, Experience, Experience!

Working with rubber and other specialty materials to fabricate parts and products is a highly skilled endeavour, combining art and science. Good suppliers know their materials and understand how the properties and characteristics of these materials can support applications in the field. In addition, experienced suppliers have an extensive track record of converting elastomers and other materials into parts and products which are reliable, durable, and fully fit for purpose. Choosing less experienced suppliers for the provision of your industrial rubber products can result in lower part quality, in-use failures, and increased costs.

Tip #3: Check Out the Supplier’s Inventory Supply

Producing industrial rubber products usually requires converting materials into a finished product. Good suppliers manage and control their material stock levels to ensure the ready provision of finished parts. This is especially critical when contracting for the supply of OEM or MRO parts: supplier stock-outs of needed input materials can cause delayed or missed deliveries of finished parts to customers.

Tip #4: Evaluate Costs Carefully

It’s important to consider value as well as costs. In most cases, achieving reliability from the parts you buy will require some level of quality in the parts or service that are just as important as price.  Think value over cost. A supplier may have a slightly higher price, but may offer better quality, superior delivery performance, more flexible payment terms, or other customized solutions that are a better fit with your business. With industrial rubber products for OEM or MRO use, it is important to consider total lifecycle costs rather than just the purchase price of the goods: parts which cost less but fail more frequently in-use may actually increase your costs due to the higher failure rate.

For over 25 years, CRG has been supplying industrial rubber products to the global marketplace. All parts we produce are made in our ISO 9001-registered facility using the most advanced manufacturing technologies. We fabricate industrial rubber products from a wide variety of materials, including elastomers, corks, non-wovens, and plastics. Key products we supply include gaskets and sealsautomotive rubber partscustom fabrications, and more.

To find out more about how CRG can support your needs, please contact our sales department at crg@canadarubbergroup.com.