Development of Custom Silicone Compounds for Automotive Applications

The automotive industry continually seeks new custom rubber compounds that are capable of meeting specific environmental and physical challenges. To be cost effective, the new compounds must be readily and economically fabricated (molded) to the highest quality standards. Also, the custom compound must be made available in relatively small batch quantities, particularly during development stages.

The decreasing cost differential between silicones and high performance organic elastomers, combined with the development of custom compounding of stronger and tougher silicone rubbers, has made silicones more attractive to automotive engineers who are as much concerned with quality as with cost.

Custom compounding minimizes batch-to-batch variations and improves consistency of molded parts. Silicone compounds can be tailored to meet the requirements of automotive engineers during prototyping and testing stages.