Custom cut parts and rapid prototyping from flash and flex cutting
An important aspect of our business at Canada Rubber Group Inc. (CRGI) is producing custom cut rubber parts and shapes. While many of these parts are cut from rubber sheet, we are often required to cut parts from a variety of other materials, such as reinforced material, silicones, foam and sponge, cork, fiber, transparent conductive films, and the like. For these types of jobs, we often use our flash or flex cutting processes.
Advantages of flash/flex cutting
Both flash and flex cutting are die-less forms of production. Unlike traditional die-cutting, flash/flex cutting uses CNC equipment to hold material in place and custom cut shapes and parts from material thicknesses .001 up to 1.00 inches. Because they are die-less processes, flash/flex cutting eliminates the tooling costs associated with traditional die cutting.
Both flash and flex cutting permit the production of complex shapes, geometries and patterns. In addition, flex cutting also supports the milling of material to produce grooves and chamfered edges.
Since they are CNC processes, flash/flex cutting produces parts with great precision and superior aesthetics. Parts produced from flash/flex cutting have clean edges, and lack the concavity that can occur with die cutting. In addition, process efficiency and material yields are far superior that that obtainable with die cutting. In particular, customers can supply CAD drawings which CRGI operators can upload directly onto the equipment, thus eliminating the delays normally associated with drawing provision. The speed of flash/flex cutting makes both processes extremely useful for rapid prototyping, as well as short-run production where order quantities tend to be smaller.
Benefits of flash/flex cutting
Due to its lower tooling costs, flash/flex cutting lowers the production cost per part and reduces production time that would normally be spent waiting on tooling. The speed of flash/flex cutting means that the time-to-market from design through to prototype and production part can be greatly compressed and shortened. The superior finish and precision of flash/flex cut parts reduces the incidence of scrap and non-conforming parts.
Since flash/flex cutting can handle a variety of materials, these processes are extremely flexible and adaptable to a range of customer needs. Using our flash/flex equipment, CRGI can rapidly produce custom cut parts and shapes from a wide variety of material types and thicknesses. Parts that we can supply include the following:
Gaskets and seals
NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) products, including isolators and dampeners
Diaphragms
Touchscreen and EMI shielding film shapes and parts
Custom shapes and parts, including oversize gaskets
Equipment parts, including wear-resistant lining and skirting
Bearing pads
If you have an application that requires a custom cut rubber part, or need rapid part prototyping, our sales department will be delighted to speak with you.
To find out more about the flash/flex custom cut parts we can supply, please contact our sales department directly at crg@canadarubbergroup.com.