Custom Gasket Production Guide: From Start to Finish
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So you’re ready to manufacture your custom gasket or rubber part, or you are getting ready to jump in and start your design.
We’re so glad you started here. The earlier you can get your custom gasket manufacturing partner involved in your design process, the better off you’ll be. They’ll help you head off major problems, reduce the amount of time spent in the design phase, and ultimately produce a higher quality product or reduce your manufacturing costs.
There are thousands of different applications in which your custom gasket may be used, and you may be in one of many different stages in the planning or design process. As such, we’ve built this guide as a “choose your own adventure” style map of our content on the subject so you can narrow down and focus just on what you need in this moment (or choose to read everything from start to finish if you’d like!).
Where are you in the process of designing your custom gasket or rubber part?
- I haven’t started designing yet.
- I’m trying to select a material for my custom gasket.
- I am in the prototyping phase.
- I have the part design complete and I’m looking for a manufacturing partner to produce it.
- The part has been in production for some time, but we are revamping the design or having to replace or source a new material.
You are just getting started on your design, the perfect place to involve a manufacturing partner! Start with the content below which includes some guidance for engineers during the design phase that will help improve the manufacturability of your design.
8 Important Design Considerations for Custom Gaskets
This article covers the 8 most important considerations for custom gasket design in detail, including:
- The function of your custom gasket
- Regulatory requirements for your application
- The environment your custom gasket will live in
- The temperature range for your custom gasket
- Selection of your gasket material
- The manufacturability of your custom design
- The manufacturing methods most suited to your design
Designing for Success: 5 Frequent Oversights & How to Address Them
This guide breaks down the most common design mistakes we see in drawings submitted to us. It will help you ensure you don’t have to spend extra cycles going back and forth with your manufacturing partner to get the design just right.
Involving your manufacturing partner early is key.
Learn how Signal Hound was able to overcome production delays and assembly issues by involving the right manufacturing partner earlier in the design process.
Selecting the right material, and understanding how that material influences both the design and manufacturability of your gasket, is potentially the most important step in the custom gasket design process.
10 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Material for Your Custom Gasket
We’ve found, in our years of helping customers choose the perfect material for their custom gasket, there are 10 very important questions you should be asking yourself when choosing a material that will help you get it right the first time. This article covers all of the following questions in-depth:
- Will the gasket be used in an indoor or outdoor application?
- What temperature range must your gasket operate in?
- What does your industry require?
- How hard or soft does your gasket material need to be?
- Do you need a three-dimensional or flat gasket?
- How will your custom gasket be assembled?
- What will your housing be made out of?
- What chemicals will the gasket be exposed to?
- How small is the gasket?
- Is outgassing a concern?
27 Materials for Custom Gaskets and Their Purposes
Just looking for general, high-level guidance on materials? This article breaks down the primary categories of materials (like silicone rubber, neoprene or sponge materials) used to build custom cut gaskets and provides some initial guidance on when they might be a fit for your needs.
Looking for help determining the right materials for your needs?
This is a great time to get your custom gasket manufacturing partner involved with refining your design. Typically if you are in the prototyping phase, you’ll want a low volume of quick turn parts to test changes to your design.
In this case, you’ll want to look for a manufacturing partner who can support you both for prototype and production volumes, to ensure consistent quality throughout the process. Additionally, you’ll need to look for a partner that has varying manufacturing methods so they can produce the right volume for you at the right speed without overrunning budgets.
Your partner should work closely with you to select a manufacturing process that fits your prototyping phase but has the flexibility to deliver through varying methods depending on how you scale your production over time.
Often some of the best methods for producing gasket prototypes, because they don’t involve hard tooling, are:
Digital or CNC Cutting
Learn more about when Digital or CNC Cutting is the best method for custom gasket production, and the benefits it offers during prototyping.
Waterjet Cutting
Learn more about when Waterjet Cutting is the best method for custom gasket production and the benefits it offers during prototyping.
At this point, you’ll also likely be looking for a long-term partner to work with who can serve you both during prototyping and full-scale production. It is a great time to vet partners and find the right long-term fit.
These articles are useful in helping you to identify and evaluate different partners for long-term success:
10 Things to Expect from Your Custom Gasket Manufacturing Partner
Read through this rigorous list of checkpoints to consider when looking for a new custom gasket manufacturing partner.
How to Choose a Custom Gasket Company
With similar information to the previous article, this breaks down the information into a step-by-step guide for evaluating partners.
Involving your manufacturing partner early is key.
Learn how Signal Hound was able to overcome production delays and assembly issues by involving the right manufacturing partner earlier in the design process.
With your design in hand, you are ready to get quotes and determine both the best fit manufacturing method and partner to build the part for you.
Choosing a Manufacturing Process
Choosing the right manufacturing process for producing your custom gasket or rubber part is as much of an art as it is a science. The right manufacturing partner should be able to review your design, understand your needs for volume, and help you decide the appropriate method for production.
In general, there is a misconception that tolerances for a specific design are determined primarily by the machines cutting or producing the gaskets. In reality, the ability for a manufacturer to meet tolerances on a specific gasket design depends far more heavily on the material itself than on the manufacturing process.
If you want to learn a bit more about how we choose which manufacturing process may be a fit for ultimately producing your custom gasket, take a look at these in-depth guides that break down when and how we utilize each of our core gasket manufacturing processes:
Die Cutting
Learn more about when a die cut gasket is the right fit for your needs.
Digital/CNC Cutting
Learn more about when digital or CNC cut gaskets are the right fit for your needs.
What Happens During a Design for Manufacturability (DFM) Review?
The most important thing a manufacturing partner can do in helping you select the appropriate method for producing your custom gasket is a Design for Manufacturability (DFM) Review.
This article breaks down more about exactly what happens during a DFM review, and what to expect.
Choosing a Manufacturing Partner
Just as important, if not more important, than getting the right manufacturing method chosen for your custom gasket production, is selecting the right long-term partner who will provide you with both the service and quality you need.
These articles are useful in helping you to identify and evaluate different partners for long-term success:
10 Things to Expect from Your Custom Gasket Manufacturing Partner
Read through this rigorous list of checkpoints to consider when looking for a new custom gasket manufacturing partner.
How to Choose a Custom Gasket Company
With similar information to the previous article, this breaks down the information into a step-by-step guide for evaluating partners.
Interested in jumping into a DFM to see if Modus is a fit?
The shift from design and prototyping over to continued production is often a pretty monumental shift. The engineering team relinquishes control of the design, and the ownership of managing the supply chain and continual production typically goes to a procurement team.
In an ideal world, you’ll want to continue sourcing the part from the same partner who helped to build your custom prototype to ensure the level of quality stays continuous and you don’t have integral parts failing in the field.
This might seem pretty obvious, or common sense, but in practice, it can be difficult to achieve. Procurement systems are often cumbersome and filled with thousands of different suppliers. Simply miscoding or labeling a supplier can result in them not showing up in searches to order specific items or parts that they may have been a huge part of helping to create.
As an engineer, you’ll likely have a vested interest in ensuring the part undergoes little to-no-changes during large-scale production that could ultimately cause the part to fail. It is best to work with your procurement team when handing a part over the fence, to ensure the suppliers who helped build the pieces are coded correctly and labeled appropriately in the system.
As a member of the procurement team, you’ll ideally want strong relationships with your key suppliers. Often strategic activities like reducing your number of suppliers, and ordering larger volumes through those that offer the best service result in bulk discounts, better prices, and likely shorter lead times as well.
One of the most important items for procurement teams is ensuring parts maintain the original quality standards they were built and tested with. Maintaining relationships with the suppliers that helped to build prototypes is the best way to save both time and money in the long run by avoiding costly mistakes.
Focusing on spending better rather than penny-pinching on each individual component ordered can have incredible long-term benefits to both speed to market and bottom line.
Learn more about how to vet manufacturing partners that will make great long-term partners for strategic procurement:
10 Things to Expect from Your Custom Gasket Manufacturing Partner
Read through this rigorous list of checkpoints to consider when looking for a new custom gasket manufacturing partner.
How to Choose a Custom Gasket Company
With similar information to the previous article, this breaks down the information into a step-by-step guide for evaluating partners.
Interested in learning more?
We love answering questions! No really, we do! Get in touch to learn more about how we can make your procurement process more strategic.