What is Urethane Casting?
Urethane casting is a soft-tooling manufacturing method that is used to produce small quantities of high-quality rigid plastic, rubber and silicone parts.
Cast urethane molding is a relatively inexpensive manufacturing process. The lower cost is mainly due to the speed and ease of mold-making. Urethane casting is done with silicone. The material is inexpensive, easy to work with, is easy to modify and produces detailed parts.
Compared to injection molding, which requires a significant investment to machine a mold, the silicone mold required for urethane casting is inexpensive and easy to produce. It enables the use of high-performance materials that are a close match to those used in commercial products.
Because of that, cast urethane molding is an ideal tool for designers to make small numbers of prototype parts for functional and cosmetic testing. It’s often used as a stepping-stone for design engineers to test and refine their designs before they commit to the investment in an injection molding tool. Urethane casting can also be used for low-volume production.
How Does Cast Urethane Molding Work?
The urethane casting process is simple:
- A master pattern is designed using CAD software.
- The pattern is manufactured, usually by CNC machining it.
- The master pattern is then placed in liquid silicone to form a mold.
- After the silicone mold has fully cured, it is cut in half and the master pattern is removed. The cavity produced by the master pattern becomes the casting.
- Urethane is added to the mold tool and cured.
- The completed part is removed from the mold and the process is repeated.
Applications of Urethane Casting
Common applications of cast urethane molding include:
- Concept models
- Marketing test samples
- Point of purchase displays
- Medical devices
- Specialty overmolding
- Soft, rubber-like parts
Industries where urethane parts are used include:
- Automotive
- Medical
- Consumer products
- Electronics
- Medical devices
Advantages of Cast Urethane Molding
Many Finishing Options: Custom molded urethane parts can be painted to match any Pantone color. A variety of textures and finishes are also available.
Exceptional Detail: Cast urethane molding can be used to produce parts with complex geometries and fine detail.
Quality: The silicone molds provide excellent surface finish detail and can accurately mimic production colors and textures. The urethane casting process can provide physical properties that are equal to or better than injection molded parts. Custom-molded urethane parts are also stronger than their 3D-printed counterparts.
Hard or Soft: Urethane materials can be used to create both rigid and flexible, elastomer-like parts. Urethane casting can also be used to create transparent parts.
Fast to Market: With a quick turnaround time, cast urethane parts can bring a project to its next level for consumer testing, bridge production or short-run production, and can help your company bring new products to market faster.
Urethane Materials Available
At ICOMold by Fathom, we offer a variety of plastic- and rubber-like materials, with qualities that range from flexible to rigid. Click here to view a list of urethane casting materials that are readily available.
Finishing Options for Urethane Parts
Our urethane casting process allows you to specify various options for your parts, including:
- Painting
- Inserts
- Silkscreening
- Transparency
- PMS color matching
- Custom processes
Cast urethane parts can also be post-machined to achieve tighter tolerances and can accommodate a variety of inserts.
Is Urethane Casting Expensive?
Cast urethane molding is a relatively inexpensive manufacturing process. The lower cost is mainly due to the speed and ease of mold-making for the urethane casting process. Cast urethane molding is done with silicone. The material is inexpensive, easy to work with, can quickly be modified, and will produce detailed, custom-molded urethane parts.
Urethane casting can cost anywhere from a hundred to a thousand dollars depending on the complexity of the part being molded.
Why Choose Cast Urethane Molding?
- Affordability: For low-volume production of parts, it’s often less expensive than injection molding or additive manufacturing.
- Part Validation: Urethane casting can be used to quickly produce prototype parts that mimic the look and feel of injection molding, before committing to tooling.
- Complexity: It can be used to produce parts with complex geometries that may be challenging to create using other manufacturing methods.
- Flexible to Rigid: Produce parts with a wide range of hardness – ideal for comparing different versions of the same part side-by-side.
Why Choose ICOMold by Fathom for Urethane Casting?
Our overseas partner has extensive experience producing custom-molded urethane parts. We can help you meet your cost, timing and performance requirements.
