Polyurethane Rod is often used as a replacement for rubber components and provides an obvious upgrade over the traditional material. Polyurethane has a much improved resistance to wear and can out last other materials by as much as four times.
Advantages of Polyurethane Rod
Another advantage is the performance during load and compression, Polyurethane will out perform rubber which will often permanently deform much sooner resulting in the associated components, often vehicle suspension parts becoming loose and causing lack of control and often expensive damage. Another advantage is its resistance to ageing or perishing, rubber will often degrade over sometimes a short period of time and this can often be accelerated in UV exposure and the contact with oils and fuels. Polyurethane Rod is also much more resistant to cutting with sharp edges and is also much more impact resistant.
Applications
There are many and almost limitless applications for Polyurethane Rod. One application which has become popular is the replacement of car suspensions and ancillary components. This is because Polyurethane will withstand deformation, impact, UV and other aggressions such as oil and fuels much greater than traditional rubber components. Polyurethane Rod is also popular for wheels, pulleys and rollers which are used in many industries such as amusement rides, fishing industry and other similar manufacturing industry due to its high wear resistance, shock and impact abilities. Polyurethane Rod is also often used within the tool room environment to replace springs on press tools as an excellent rebound medium. Polyurethane Rod is also specified for bump stops and can often be found on the heads of “soft” hammers and “soft jaws” in vices to reduce damage to any mating materials.
History of Polyurethane Rod
This was pioneered by a Mr Otto Bayer and colleagues around 1937 in Germany. They quickly realized that there were advantages over existing plastics and were able to patent what is now known as Polyurethane.
World War II held back development and during the 1960’s, manufacturing techniques improved and became more economical and began to replace existing lower performance materials. In the early part of the 21st century attention has been focused on the use of sustainable products to be used in the manufacture of Polyurethane, this is due to the unpredictable cost and supply of the petrochemical industry.
Properties of Polyurethane Rod
Polyurethane Rod is available in a large variety of hardness’ ranging from 10 Shore A which is softer than a pencil rubber to around 90 Shore D which is as hard as Nylon. This is also available in many colors which means that a customer can personalize their components or use a color coding system to identify particular components at a glance.
This rod is also excellent for impact resistance also and its elastic properties. This varies as the Shore hardness increases but even the hardest grades outperform other similar materials and will resist cracking and any permanent deformation much more than traditional rubber.
Polyurethane Rod will also outperform materials such as rubber when it comes to higher and lower temperature resistance, Polyurethane will generally resist temperatures of around plus 100°C where rubber seems to degenerate at around plus 70°C.
Another important property that Polyurethane Rod has is its resistance to abrasion and cutting. It is quite exceptional in this area and Polyurethane is often specified within the glass and glazing industry as rollers and also within the aggregates industry where very abrasive products such as sand and gravel are employed.
Polyurethane Datasheet
| Properties | Unit | |
|---|---|---|
| Shore Hardness | A | 95 |
| 100% Modulus | MPa | 8.6 |
| 300% Modulus | MPa | 16.7 |
| Tensile Strength | MPA | 34.8 |
| Elongation at break | % | 610 |
| Tear Strength | KN/M | 101.5 |
| Comparison set | % | 22 |
| Abrasion loss | % | 36 |
| Resilience | % | 37 |
| Specific gravity | g/cm3 | 1.23 |