A fast-growing portion of the UPCOA liquid injection molding output is for the medical device and diagnostic equipment marketplace. The OEM parts that we prototype and manufacture range from fluid delivery systems components to electronic encapsulation to temporary implant devices for feeding, blood workup and the like. Pictured here is a trio of catheter junction Y’s with integral connection ferrules, an ideal value-added application for liquid injection molding in silicone.

What you see here appears to be nothing more than a simple connector cable covered in rubber. No so: it’s a precisely configured cable used in surgery, requiring sealed, leak proof strain reliefs, an UPCOA specialty using LIM techniques.

We’re always busy applying LIM techniques in silicone and engineered elastomers to OEM applications in the electronic systems and electrical equipment markets.

These pushbutton strips represent only a small part of the wide range of keypad types created by UPCOA. We specialize in the keypad market with quick response to prototype tooling and market-tested quantities of output. Covering the entire design ladder from keys to contacts to smear-proof ID/keypad printing, UPCOA shepherds entire silicone molding/value-added OEM keypad projects.

What you’re looking at here is a brace of insert LIMolded black silicone camera bellows. UPCOA insert-molds the specialty steel frame so that the inflowing silicone encapsulates the frame and does it with planned surrounding wall thickness, something that compression molding cannot provide within acceptable cost/time limits. The LIM process provides for excellent mechanical bonding, uniform wall thickness (.017) and very fast curing cycles.

Rope? Spaghetti? It’s a special gasket that we developed for a major commercial oven manufacturer. While at first glance this door gasket appears to be of extruded rubber, it is, in fact, molded in silicone.

The trick for us was to come up with a combination of durometer, surface toughness and physical stability, such that hundreds of yank-open and slam-shut cycles wouldn’t tear it apart, which, incidentally, was the fate of every previous effort by makers of “traditional” gaskets. We not only solved the problem, we made it cost effective, too.

LIMolding is dramatically cost-effective as a method of producing large silicone parts, such as the port gaskets pictured here. Rapid cycle times and lower tooling costs combine to make LIM unbeatable in making large parts.

These computer 3-axis input control covers provide amazing tactile sensitivity, thus the ultimate control mouse. With micro-positioning demanding more in the way of nerve reaction rather than muscle, UPCOA LIMolded silicone assures superior tactile input and cost effectiveness.

This little item is the key component in a very complex fluid diagnostic system. The tolerances are such that there is no allowance whatever for less-than-flawless molding, and none whatsoever for secondary treatment of any kind. In short, the part must be perfect when it comes out of the tool.

But it’s not what’s outside that counts: it’s the very precise mating of two fluid paths to a mixing chamber. This is the kind of performance that sets UPCOA apart from the others.