Value added refers to the enhancements available to a company’s product or service before offering them to customers. When contemplating a silicone rubber molding supplier for your component it is beneficial to inquire about what value added services the company you are considering offers. A value added manufacturing company has the capability to provide a variety of tasks for its customers which typically reduces the overall price of manufacturing a product.
Some of the value added services we offer at SiTECH include die-cutting, laser cutting, silicone adhesive primer, adhesive applications, proprietary coating sprays, and the ability to have printed circuit boards, metal domes or membrane circuits installed on your custom silicone keypads.
Custom Adhesive
SiTECH provides the capability of applying a custom adhesive backing to our customers’ silicone keypads and components. We have two methods of creating the custom cut-outs of adhesive. The first is die cutting, a method that requires a custom tool to be made. Die-cutting has a larger initial cost due to the necessity of a custom tool, but is greatly efficient when dealing with larger volume orders. This second method uses a laser that cuts the intended design of the adhesive backing out of a larger stock size sheet of adhesive. This method is preferred for smaller quantity orders because a custom tool is not required. Although this method does take significantly longer to run, it allows for a customer to make revision changes to their product without having to modify a die-cutting tool. Laser cutting offers a significant advantage to die cutting by simply altering a computer file with the updated information.
Not only does SiTECH cut the adhesive backing for our customer’s components, but we also apply the adhesive in-house. To ensure accuracy and repeatability, we typically design and build custom nesting fixtures for applying adhesive to the intended products. These fixtures use vacuums to suck the part down into the nest and keep it from freely moving. The opposite side of the fixture is where the adhesive is attached and placed onto the part using alignment features to ensure a correct placement.
Si Prime™
The primer coating system we use at SiTECH is called Si Prime™. Si Prime™ is specifically designed for adhering silicone rubber to a variety of different surfaces with acrylic adhesives. Si Prime™ is the bonding agent between our silicone rubber molding surface and the acrylic adhesive. Along with a high range of operating temperatures, Si Prime™ also has resistances to high humidity and solvent resistance. Applying Si Prime™ to a component requires custom nesting fixtures that we build in house.
Silicone-Based Coatings
SiTECH also offers various proprietary coatings to protect your silicone product from abrasion and harsh chemicals. Our coatings are silicone-based, which allows for a permanent chemical crosslink that will last the life of the component. All coatings provide a clean matte finish even on complex shaped silicone molded components. Coatings are applied over graphic work, and because of the permanent bond created, they have no chance of chipping or peeling off of the product.
Some of the other value added services we offer include the ability to have printed circuit boards, metal domes, and membrane circuits installed in-house on your custom silicone keypads. At SiTECH, we have the resources, technology and capability to bring your component ideas to fruition and provide many services to lower your overall manufacturing cost. We are a domestic (USA) supplier and perform all of our silicone rubber manufacturing in-house. For more information, contact our staff at SiTECH.
