soft and slippery

[plastibob]

I'm looking for a soft material (tpe like) compression or injection molded that is slippery, would also like it to be durable. A good example of what I'm looking for is the Microsoft natural keyboard pad. Any thoughts?

[Dr. Dick]

You have to balance the soft with the slippery. Very soft polymers tend to be sticky simply because they deform to match the surface and two matched surfaces are hard to separate.( As example new glass microscope slides.)

What softness do you need for your application? Also measured by Shore A if you have an example of what you want.

What surface(s) do you want to slip on? There are surface roughness measurements or is this a polished surface?
A few more details of what you want to achieve or the application would help us answer your query.

[DwightDixon]

You need to more fully define all your product needs. There are a lot of specialty compounds which will just meet the soft and slippery requirements. I used to sell quite a few to the adult toy market. Call a specialty supply compounder, like GLS, (I am no longer associated with them.) and talk to their technical salesman/women. If your pounds per year are adequate, they will make up something to meet your exacting needs.

[plastibob]

It's a bumper application for a 9 lb wheeled device, that could bump into walls, furniture, equipment ect.. it travels less than 1 mph. So it doesn't want to scuff up obstacles or be loud.

[Len]

It's a bumper application for a 9 lb wheeled device, that could bump into walls, furniture, equipment ect.. it travels less than 1 mph. So it doesn't want to scuff up obstacles or be loud.

You will need to be very careful in your material selection as to not transfer a mark or mare these impacted surfaces (furniture, walls, etc.). no one wants a black mark on their wall form a poorly designed bumper. The bumper must protest the devise and not harm the contact surface. My guess is that a flexible urethane would work very nicely as a non-marring bumper.

Len

[DwightDixon]

How soft is soft? How many do you want to make? Injection molding is good if you plan for 50,000 plus. Rim is good for similar numbers. If you are only making 1000 s then pour urethane's will be less costly to set up and available in lower hardness. Once you have your production/business plan in place and your patent applied for you can go looking for the material experts and the production facility.

[Len]

A few polyurethane molders, for your review.

1.) Advanced Urethane Solution, Inc.
2.) Gallagher Corporation
3.) American Urethane, Inc
4.) ESCO Plastics Company
5.) Unicast, Inc
6.) Polyurethane Products Corporation

These are manufacturers of molding urethane products for various applications. Many site sound deadening and/or abrasion resistant, soft bumpers in their product line.

I hope this is helpful.

Len

[rickbatey]

Kraiburg makes soft injection moldable resins. They are based on SEBS versus many of the other soft resins being PP+rubber. I prefer there resin to another brand that ends in 'prene' since the Kraiburg is consistent lot to lot, has better surface finish, and does not stain the mold! I do not have a recent contact for you.....Rick.

[PhoenixInc]

I am guessing you considered TPO already? It is highly durable, cheap, and comes in many durometers, plus that's the bumper material used in most cars. Like another poster said, don't load it down with carbon black or there may be marks on walls. 9 lb device shouldn't be too bad about that though.