Silicone Die Cutting
- 20 Die-cutting Machines
- 2,000 m2 Clean Room
- 200,000 Daily Production
Introduction
We have more than 2,000 m2 clean room for silicone gaskets and pads production. Our die cutting machines are MQG200, and MQG420, the high cutting speed can reach to 300 spm and 150 spm separately. These automatic cutting machines can reach tolerance of ± 0.03 easily.
Miwo provides steel-rule dies in our custom silicone die cutting service. This enables us to offer unlimited customization. We apply technical drawing to produce customs dies with specific structure and dimensions. Our engineering team will collaborate with you to solve any issue in manufacturing process. Furthermore, we will deliver the best price and performance combination for you.
Die Cutting Technology
Die cutting apply the precision dies to burst through silicone materials, then produce required silicone parts with various geometries. As we can provide steel-rule dies with specific shapes and diameters, there are endless ability to product silicone gaskets, seals, pads and feet with different shape, size and material.
The steel rule dies have hundreds of shapes and sizes, from extremely complex to very simple. All these die-tools have benefits of durability and low cost. Depending on different silicone materials, some dies can reach to a million hits.
The die-cutting equipment is the key to ensure high quality. Modern die-cutting machines provide computer algorithms and fast production ability. Our modern die-cutting machines utilize coordination of computers, hydraulics and software to provide suitable silicone products with the best price.
Capability of Silicone Die Cutting
Silicone die cutting has high repeatability in each cut production. Naturally strong dies can produce high quality silicone parts over and over. Every cut is within a few thousandths, the tolerance of steel-rule dies can reach to ± 0.1 mm. However, it is difficult to achieve this tolerance in complex structure, extremely thick or dense silicone materials.
Custom silicone die cutting can produce precision intricate silicone parts, like pads, gaskets, washers. Its better fits result in less material waste, with money and time saving.
Custom Silicone Materials
Miwo provides various silicone materials for die cutting, these silicone materials include silicone sponge, silicone foam, solid silicone sheet. The products of our die cutting are gaskets, thermal pads, and absorb pads.
Modern custom die cutting can provide pressure sensitive adhesive on the back of silicone parts with ease of removal. These are different types of silicone based adhesive backing for different applications. We cooperate with 3M to provide custom silicone products with advanced 3M adhesive and material.
Silicone Sponge
Silicone Foam
Solid Silicone Sheet
Considerations of Silicone Die Cutting
- Material Selection: Too soft silicone materials will give rise to deformation on concave edges.
- Material Density: High density silicone is resilient and strong, it is difficult to cut. While the thinner silicone is easy to stretch.
- Materials Thickness: Material thickness result in additional strength. However, after a certain thickness, it is incompatible with die-cutting.
- Geometry Design: Die cutting has the dimension limit of 2.5 mm. Thinner than this is not suitable. In addition, it is best to allow tolerance of ± 0.5 mm for all dimensions.
- Cutting Tolerance: Softer silicone materials require more relaxed tolerance than stronger materials.
- Production Volume: Larger volume production will result in lower cost per unit.
Silicone Die Cutting Benefits
- Fast custom pads and gasket cutting
- Low-cost steel rule die cutting
- Solid steel dies for complex parts with high tolerance
- Optimal material usage by combination of die cutting machine and software
Limitation of Silicone Die-cutting
Die cutting normally produces the two-dimensional part (X and Y axis). Therefore, there are some situations that die cutting doesn’t make sense, such as
- Once there are too many cut-outs, not all the surface burst perfectly at the same time. Therefore, too many cut-outs on one part will result in challenges in pressure balance and production consistency.
- Tolerance is a tricky challenge, especially for complex geometry, and various size.
- Too thick materials will result in concavity issues, it is wise to avoid die-cut too thick material.