Silicon: Our Most Valuable Material Isn’t a Precious Metal

Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. From jewelry to electronics, these precious metals are rare and have great economic value. Silicon metal isn’t precious, and its ingredients are commonly found in Earth’s crust. Yet, silicon metal is incredibly valuable because it’s a major ingredient in silicone rubber, solar panels, electric vehicles, semiconductor chips, aluminum, defense technologies – and much more.

Today, China refines 70% of the world’s silicon metal. The United States refines only 5%. Although the U.S. government is recognizing the importance of increasing our refining capacity, it takes years to build silicon metal refineries – and the refining process requires a great deal of energy. Meanwhile, demand for silicon metal is expected to grow 50% over the next 5 to 10 years.  

Do we want to depend on China for our supply of silicon metal? For that matter, do we want to depend on overseas suppliers for PDMS, an important member of the silicone family? Most PDMS production has left North America for Asia, but demand for silicone keeps growing. That’s why members of the silicone industry, myself included, are asking the U.S. government to take bold action.

What can you do as a silicone buyer? Whenever possible, please choose products and materials that are Made in USA. Your buying decisions will help spur investments in domestic capacity, and you’ll get quality silicones with ingredients you can trust.

Silicone Lead Times and MOQs

Have you tried to buy silicones lately? These days it seems like everything is in short supply, including good news.

Some of what you need to buy isn’t available, and what you can get takes too long to arrive or ties up too much cash because of high minimum order quantities (MOQs). Meanwhile, the requirements you’re expected to meet keep getting stricter.

Fortunately, doing business with ElastaPro is about flexibility when you need to buy silicones. For stocked items, our lead times are typically as short as one to three days. For most made-to-order products, our lead times are two weeks. Plus, ElastaPro offers very low MOQs for all of our products.

Whether you need solid silicone sheets, uncured silicone compounds, or specifications-grade silicones, you’ll get high-quality materials backed by exceptional service and superior technology. The materials you need are proudly Made in the USA, too.

Buy Silicones from ElastaPro

At a time when supply chains are constricted, many suppliers seem rigid. That’s not the case with ElastaPro. Find out how how our flexibility can help you. 

Silicone Expo 2022: ElastaPro to Attend

ElastaPro is pleased to announce that we will attend Silicone Expo, the world’s first free-to-attend commercial tradeshow and conference for the silicone industry.
This in-person event is scheduled for June 21 to 23, 2022 at the TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan. As a member of the Silicone Expo Board of Advisors, I hope you can join us.

Whether you’re a material supplier, a converter or fabricator, or a manufacturer that buys silicone products, you’ll gain access to:

• 180+ exhibitors
• two conference tracks
• 65+ speakers
• over 3500 buyers

ElastaPro is thrilled to be a part of this event and can’t think of a better way to bring to bring together suppliers, specifiers, and fabricators for this all-encompassing event.
From thermal management and light weighting to electrification and healthcare, silicones are part of today’s technologies and part of the solution to tomorrow’s challenges.

See You at Silicone Expo?

It would be great to see you in-person at the show. You can book a booth here.

Silicone Supplies: Predicting What Tomorrow Will Be

The car is packed. The trip to the beach is planned. The forecast was for clearing skies, but there’s rain on the windshield and gray skies up ahead. Why can’t they just predict the weather more accurately?

Rainstorms and Supply Chains

When ElastaPro first reported about silicone shortages in our March 2021 newsletter, we’d hoped that silicone rubber supply would stabilize during Q3 2021. As with so many forecasts, however, our prediction missed the mark – and the rain continues.

By now, we’ve all heard reports about how major silicone suppliers have put customers on allocation or become super-selective about taking on new business. There’s news about rising prices and longer lead times, too.

With the way things are looking, this “storm” will probably last until early 2022. So, what’s the latest version of the big picture, and what can we learn from the revised forecast?

What’s Behind the Bad Weather?

For starters, it’s important to understand that the current crisis is global in nature – and rather different than the supply shortage of 2018. Back then, the key factor was a shortage in Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) – the basic building block of silicone products. This was a result of some of these PDMS plants being taken offline due to maintenance or environmental concerns (primarily affecting the Chinese producers of PDMS). What’s changed in 2021 is less of an issue with PDMS and more in terms of people and ancillary products to convert the PDMS into elastomers and other key silicone products we all use. The Major Producers continue to struggle with catching up on their backlogs due to staffing, logistics, or shortages of ancillary and supporting products.

Additionally, one of China’s largest basic suppliers of silicon metal and downstream silicone products is banned from selling into the U.S. and the EU. Even if you don’t buy directly from this company, you possibly use its intermediates in products that you purchase from other suppliers. Again, this is making things tough.

Weathering the Storm with You

ElastaPro continues to work aggressively to assure the continued supply of silicone elastomers and ancillary products to our customers. We’re also doing all we can to reduce the costs in our processes so that we can offset rapidly increasing prices for raw materials.

Although we’ve had to increase our prices, the percentage of these increases has been well below what we are seeing in our raw materials. Moreover, we continue to maintain a two-week lead time on most made-to-order products. We’re also continuing to stock key silicone sheet materials for quick one-day turnarounds.

Look to the Long-Term Forecast

Our commitment to service goes well beyond wanting to provide you, our customer and partner, with the best quality and value in silicone sheeting and silicone compounds. We are also ensuring that we are doing all that we can to maintain a viable supply chain with quick turnaround times to provide the very best service to you.

We’ll get through this together – and sooner than later, we hope. It might not seem like it now, but sometimes storm leave behind rainbows.

Thank you for your continued support.

Molded Silicone Sheets with Quick Deliveries

ElastaPro is ready to supply you with solid silicone sheeting even if you need just a few yards of material. Our molded silicone sheets are made from high-quality ingredients and free from the curving that’s associated with roll stock. We offer quick turnarounds, too.

Molded Silicone Sheets

Check out these specs and let us know what you need:

• Standard sheet size: 36″ x 36″
• Durometer: 30 to 80 (Shore A)
• Thickness: .250″ to 1″
• Formulation: VMQ, PVMQ, or FVMQ
• Specification Grades: FDA, UL, medical, electrically conductive
• Commercial Grades: Available
• Colors: Red, black, gray, or blue

Made in USA Silicone Sheeting

In these uncertain times, ElastaPro has the capabilities and flexibility to provide what you need when you need it. All of our silicone products are Made in the USA by a team that’s committed to bringing you the greatest value and finest customer experience.

Silicone Supply Insights

Everybody’s talking about silicone supply, but elastomers that don’t meet specifications aren’t the right way to meet demand. Don’t let them put your projects at risk.

ElastaPro tests the physical properties for each and every lot of all of our sheet materials. Our in-house testing laboratory can provide you with test results for specifications such as:

• durometer
• tensile strength
• tear strength
• percent elongation
• fluid & heat aging and much more.

Recently, our in-house lab added a third Tensometer and a more sophisticated Shore A Durometer instrument for the most accurate results. ElastaPro also sends samples to third-party accredited laboratories to confirm the results of our own testing.

The benefits don’t end there. All of our silicones are Made in the USA. We also have a large selection of stocked items and can take you from lab batch to large-scale production.

Are you concerned about your silicone supply? Let us know what you need.

Contact us for more information, or to place an order. Follow us on LinkedIn, too.

Silicone Supply Chain Insights

Looking for silicone supply chain insights? Have you ever heard the expression “can’t see the forest for the trees”? It happens when the details of a problem are so intense that it’s hard to look at the situation as a whole. By changing your focus, however, you can see things in a new way.

The silicone shortage is no exception. Buyers are worried about supplies and engineers are excited about new applications. So when I participated in a Silicone 2021 Livestream for Rubber and Plastics News (RPN), both topics (and others) were on the agenda.

Silicone Supply Chain Insights

RPN has made this on-line event available but you’ll need to complete a short form.Listen to the Recording

Metal Detectable Silicone Rubber Sheets

Metal detectable silicone rubber sheets make it easier for food processors to spot contamination caused by silicone seals. Because they are metal-impregnated, these elastomers let manufacturers use in-line metal detection systems to get fast, accurate alerts about the presence of silicone seal fragments in food products.

ElastaPro’s metal detectable silicone rubber sheets meet FDA CFR 21 177.2600 requirements for repeated food contact. These gasket materials come in various colors and are supplied as cured sheeting and uncured compound. Gasket fabrication methods for solid silicone sheeting include die cutting and water jet cutting.

This tasteless, odorless, and FDA compliant silicone is proudly Made in the USA and fabricated with high-quality and certified raw materials. In addition to food processing, applications, metal detectable silicone sheets from ElastaPro can be used in beverage, dairy, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Contact us to learn more, or to place an order. Follow us on LinkedIn, too.

General Purpose Silicone Sheets

General purpose grade silicone sheets from ElastaPro have well-known silicone rubber characteristics and come in durometers from 30 to 80 (Shore A). This solid silicone sheeting from ElastaPro can be used in silicone rubber gaskets, rubber silicone rings, or custom silicone parts. Gasket fabrication methods include die cutting and water jet cutting.

General purpose solid silicone sheets from Elasta Pro meet AA-59588 Class 2A/2B, ASTM D2000, and AMS33XX specifications for aerospace and industrial applications. At a time when silicones are in short supply, we invite you to learn more about these materials and how ElastaPro builds long-term business relationships.

Contact us for more information, or to place an order. Follow us on LinkedIn, too.

Flame Retardant Silicone Sheets

Flame retardant silicone sheets from ElastaPro resist the spread of flame and fire. They are used in applications that require a UL 94 V0 solid silicone sheeting. Because these elastomers produce low smoke density, they are used for sealing and insulation in in rail cars, airplane interiors, and with marine transport applications.

Flame retardant silicone sheeting can be fabricated into rubber gaskets through die cutting or water jet cutting. This solid silicone sheeting comes in thicknesses from .010” to .500” and are available in widths up to 60”.  ElastaPro’s flame retardant silicone sheets have different hardnesses and come in 60 durometer and 65 durometer (Shore A).

Importantly, this specifications grade material from ElatsaPro has a UL 94 V0 Yellow Card on file with Underwriters Laboratories (UL). It also meets FAR 25.853 flammability requirements for aircraft compartment interiors. FAR 25.853 is a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) test to determine the flammability of materials used in airplane interiors, including both cabin and cargo compartments.

Contact us for more information, or to place an order. Follow us on LinkedIn, too.