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Notes from the tooling bench
Engineering notes, factory capacity and programme updates
Six notes on how silicone parts are quoted, tooled and checked. Each one carries the number it argues about — durometer, compression set, lead time, MOQ.
01 — All notes
All six notes, newest first
Confirm fit in 24 hours: what the service actually checks
A drawing can be fully dimensioned, toleranced and signed off internally, and still be impossible to mould at the price that was budgeted. The fit review exists to catch that before steel is cut.
Choosing between 30 and 70 Shore A
Hardness is the first number most buyers name and the last one they should fix. It follows from the failure mode you are trying to avoid, not from a catalogue default.
From drawing to first article in 30 days
Thirty days from an approved drawing to a measured first article is a schedule, not a slogan. It only holds when four things are settled before the first cut.
Compression set is a design decision, not a material defect
When a seal stops sealing, the first question is usually about the compound. More often the answer is in the groove, the strain and the temperature history.
How light customization runs: 300 pieces, +3 days
Not every change needs a new tool. Four kinds of change run on the existing mould — and the reason they have a minimum is practical, not commercial.
What “factory plus certified capacity network” means for a schedule
Plenty of suppliers describe every step as happening under one roof. Ours does not, and the difference matters when a programme scales past the presses we own.
Two pages in 48 hours: what will not mold, and what it will cost to make it mold correctly.
Start a DFM review →320+ rollers, 200 masking specs and 300 O-ring sizes, checked by a person.
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