Custom Rubber Parts from Lake Erie Rubber

TL;DR – Article Summary & Takeaways

• Custom rubber components and parts are specifically engineered to meet unique application requirements, including environmental conditions, corrosive agents, mechanical stress, compressive forces, and extreme temperatures or pressures.
• Successful custom rubber molding projects begin with a collaborative approach to determine proper material selection and mold design that lead to consistent manufacturing results and parts with extended durability.
• Lake Erie Rubber is an ISO 9001-certified manufacturer of custom parts using state-of-the-art compression, injection, and transfer molding technology that prioritizes efficient throughput and production processes that improve overall part quality, costs, and turnaround times.
• From concept through production, the team at Lake Erie Rubber acts as a true manufacturing partner on custom projects, reducing development risks, part defects, material waste, and eventually producing high-quality rubber parts that withstand demanding industrial environments.

Quotes for Custom Rubber Parts

Custom Rubber Parts Engineered for Performance & Reliability

Finding a rubber manufacturer that offers the most competitive pricing is not always the best solution, especially when it comes to rubber parts with custom specifications. Price is not everything, and working with a true manufacturing partner like Lake Erie Rubber, instead of just another rubber part supplier, makes a tremendous difference. Our team doesn’t just take a drawing and turn around parts; we investigate the end usages, design features, volume, and finish characteristics of the rubber part and make meaningful recommendations that not only improve end quality but can also save considerable time and money.

How We Engineer Rubber Parts to Custom Specifications

Developing a successful custom rubber component requires extensive collaboration between engineering, tooling, manufacturing, and quality teams. Not exactly a process OEMs want to entrust to overseas manufacturers, or those without the track record of a company like Lake Erie Rubber. Our process is designed to reduce the risks associated with early-stage development and ensure that every production rubber part meets customer specifications and is optimized for cost-efficient manufacturing and high-level end performance.

Design Review & Engineering Collaboration

Our team begins each project with a thorough design review of provided drawings, CAD files, existing samples, and application requirements to understand how the finished part is intended to perform. From here, our engineers evaluate the design for moldability, shrink characteristics, draft angles, flash locations, gates, and expected production efficiency metrics before the tooling design and manufacturing process starts.

Elastomer Selection

Choosing the correct elastomer for your rubber part is one of the most crucial steps in developing a custom part, as it involves balancing chemical compatibility, operating temperatures, environmental exposure, and mechanical performance. The comparison table below highlights the strengths and common applications for a variety of high-performance synthetic elastomers and natural rubber.

Mold Design & Custom Tooling

Production tooling for rubber molding projects is engineered to maximize consistency, minimize cycle times, reduce flashing and material waste, while supporting repeatable manufacturing practices that prolong the service life of the mold. Depending on the manufacturing method (compression, injection, or transfer) and the particular part geometries or features, the mold design and custom tooling process can require additional recommendations and alterations to be effective.

Learn More About Rubber Mold Design & Custom Tooling >>

Prototype Development

Any successful custom rubber manufacturing project starts with one or several prototype versions that can be thoroughly tested and validated before progressing to production. With in-house engineering support and versatile equipment, Lake Erie Rubber can produce several iterations of prototype parts for testing and review with expedited turnaround times, keeping your project moving along without lengthy delays or project interruptions.

Learn More About Prototype Development >>

Scalability & Production Manufacturing

Once a design is deemed successful, Lake Erie Rubber has the equipment and capacity to transition production from small-volume prototypes to large batch manufacturing runs. With one of the most modernized and advanced collections of rubber molding equipment in the United States, Lake Erie Rubber offers seamlessly scalable molding solutions for custom rubber parts, no matter the size, design features, elastomer choice, or volume.

Learn More About Scalable Production Manufacturing >>

Types of Rubber Parts We Manufacture to Custom Specs

Our capabilities support a wide range of custom molded rubber parts and components used throughout the industrial world. Many manufacturing projects, especially those in specialty or niche industries, find that standard part dimensions or traditional elastomers fall short of the necessary performance or longevity requirements. Historically, Lake Erie Rubber has manufactured thousands of custom parts specifically for one unique application or use, routinely challenging our engineering team to push the boundaries of our molding equipment and experience. Other examples of traditional rubber parts that we’ve manufactured to custom dimensions include:

• Seals and gaskets
• Bushings
• Electrical Insulators
• Grommets
• Bellows
• Diaphragms
• Vibration isolators
• Shock mounts
• Rubber bumpers
• Protective covers
• Cable protection components
• Rubber-to-metal bonded assemblies
• Industrial rollers for chemical manufacturing

Our Industry Partners & Experience

We provide custom rubber manufacturing to companies in many different industries, including the rail, mining, construction, vibration control, electrical connector, power generation, oil and gas, and pet product industries. Our ability to work efficiently has led to drastically shorter lead times for customers, improved technical support, and top-notch product quality. With over 60 years of experience supplying components for OEM manufacturers and distributors, Lake Erie Rubber is your best option for custom rubber parts made in the United States.

Industries Served

Lake Erie Rubber serves a wide variety of industries. These are just some examples of the industries we serve and what we provide for our customers:

• Rail Industry → Lake Erie Rubber manufactures custom rubber parts for the rail industry that are safe and compliant with government regulations. This includes bellows, cable cleats, electrical insulators, sand nozzles, and custom grommets.
• Mining → We serve companies across the mining industry by manufacturing rubber parts such as engine mounts, gaskets, flexible connectors, vibration isolators, bumpers, and much more.
• Construction Equipment → Lake Erie Rubber provides custom rubber parts for applications in the construction equipment industry, including bellows, grommets, gaskets, bumpers, and more.
• Vibration Control → We provide rubber parts for applications in vibration control, including a variety of mounts, spring cups, bushings, anti-vibration pads, and more.
• Pet Products → Lake Erie Rubber manufactures safe products for your pets, including an assortment of dog toys. All of our pet products are safe, using only FDA-compliant ingredients. We also provide full service capabilities, including design, manufacturing, and packaging services.

Case Study: Custom Rubber Solutions for Oil & Gas Equipment

Oil and gas equipment exerts extraordinary temperatures, pressures, and exposure to aggressive solvents on custom-molded rubber components. These parts are consistently interacting with petroleum products, vibration, and continuous mechanical forces that generate a high failure rate on unoptimized parts. Eventually, these parts result in equipment downtime, maintenance costs, and reduced operational reliability that jeopardizes overall profitability and production efficiency.

Recently, a gas and oil production company approached Lake Erie Rubber for custom molded rubber parts that were capable of performing in the demanding conditions while addressing the part consistency issues they were experiencing with their current rubber molder.

The Challenge

The customer required rubber components that exceeded the performance offered by off-the-shelf products and a greater degree of consistency than their previous rubber molding manufacturer could deliver. These parts were expected to:

• Resist degradation caused by repeated exposure to petroleum products
• Maintain dimensional stability after constant fluctuation in extreme temperatures
• Withstand repeated mechanical forces and compressive stress
• Deliver consistent and repeatable quality throughput production volume

The Engineering Solution

Our in-house engineering team collaborated with the customer to evaluate the common failure points of the rubber parts and the environmental conditions to identify the most appropriate elastomer compound for the end use. Beyond the material selection, Lake Erie Rubber optimized the part geometry to reduce flashing, material waste, and improve molding efficiency, which delivered improved performance characteristics and manufacturability.

During this phase of the project, our team paid special attention to the characteristics of the selected elastomer. In this case, the premium choice for high-temperature and chemically aggressive environments is FKM/Viton™, a synthetic elastomer capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and continual exposure to refined petrochemicals. Due to the higher material cost, Lake Erie Rubber spent additional time refining the part design to minimize material waste and reduce the risk of part failures.

The Results

Now that the customer had a reliable FKM rubber part that met their necessary design specifications, it was time to integrate it into the end application and determine final results. After several months of use, the facility saw a noticeable decrease in equipment downtime due to failed rubber parts, leading to reduced maintenance costs and inefficient production.

Overall, this custom rubber part project demonstrated the importance of finding a dependable partner with experience in engineering, elastomers, and proper molding practices to develop custom components for critical industrial applications.

Why Custom Rubber Components Fail & How to Avoid It

Many molded rubber parts or components destined for challenging end applications fail long before they should because the original design overlooked critical engineering and environmental considerations. While basic things like material selection or part design are obvious factors that determine long-term performance, there are several other factors that the experts at Lake Erie Rubber consider when manufacturing a part that lasts for years instead of just a few months.

• Compression Set: Any elastomer that remains compressed during use for extended periods can permanently lose its ability to rebound, resulting in leaking seals or reduced longevity in demanding sealing applications.
• Chemical Swelling: Synthetic and natural rubbers have a wide range of chemical compatibility characteristics, and exposure to incompatible oils, fuels, solvents, or industrial chemicals can cause rubber parts to swell, soften, or lose their dimensional integrity.
• Ozone & UV Degradation: Outdoor applications or any electrical motor systems that generate ozone can cause cracking and part failure. Any applications that require prolonged exposure to ozone or ultraviolet radiation should consider EPDM as it offers greater resistance than other general-purpose elastomers.
• Abrasion & Mechanical Wear: Heavy equipment used in mining, material handling, and industrial machinery requires durable custom rubber parts that can withstand continual exposure to vibration, abrasion, and general wear.
• Extreme Temperatures: From aerospace to oil and gas industries, extreme temperatures on both ends of the spectrum can impact the performance of rubber components. Extreme high and low temperatures can harden, soften, or permanently damage parts that vastly compromise performance and longevity.
• Poor Mold & Tooling Designs: Improper tooling can introduce wasteful flashing that takes additional time and effort to trim, inconsistent wall thickness, dimensional variation, or unnecessary manufacturing costs that can derail an entire project before it gets off the ground.
• Outdated Molding Equipment: Overseas molding companies and plenty of domestic rubber manufacturers lack the necessary capacity and equipment capabilities to handle the most challenging custom rubber part projects. Lake Erie Rubber possesses a technically advanced and high capacity fleet of compression, injection, and transfer molding equipment, making it an ideal partner for virtually any custom project.

FAQs About Manufacturing Custom Rubber Parts with Lake Erie Rubber

Is Lake Erie Rubber ISO 9001 certified?

Yes, Lake Erie Rubber is ISO 9001 certified for custom rubber molding requests, meeting quality management standards for production documentation and traceability.

Are there any volume limitations for custom rubber part projects?

No, we do not have an MOQ limitation on our custom molding services and routinely work with clients on small, medium, and large volume production runs.

Can Lake Erie Rubber handle oversized rubber parts?

Yes, our equipment is capable of handling oversized rubber molding projects, and we can develop custom tooling to best address the complex design features of large parts.

Is production scalable, from short-run prototyping to high-volume runs?

Absolutely, our modern molding equipment makes it easy to scale production from short-run prototypes or validation runs to full-scale production.

Do I need to provide a finished part design to start a custom molding project?

No, customers can feel comfortable approaching Lake Erie Rubber with rough drawings, CAD files, or finished designs of their custom parts to start the development and production process.

Do you offer design for manufacturability services?

Yes, our engineering team offers design for manufacturability services on all projects. From refining part geometries to adjusting mold layout to minimize flashing or material waste, our team provides valuable DFM services to improve part cost, quality, and efficiency.

Request A Quote for Custom Rubber Parts