With a long history of outstanding quality, superior product performance, and excellent customer service, PSI Urethanes is a trusted provider of custom polyurethane rods and polyurethane round rod stock. Our urethane products are scientifically formulated to be more resistant to abrasion, cracking, tearing, heavy loads, high impact, harsh environments, and more.
Urethane rods offer several important benefits to OEMs due to their elastomeric properties. They are more crack-resistant, abrasion-resistant, durable, and are readily customizable. Rods made of polyurethane last significantly longer than those made from conventional plastics and rubbers. Polyurethane rods are used in various industrial applications across a range of sectors. Some common uses for polyurethane rods include:
- Bumpers and Spacers
- Suspension Mounts
- Sound Dampeners
- Bushings
- Cost Effective Prototypes
Why OEMs Choose Polyurethane Rods
Polyurethane is a synthetic rubber created by reacting a polymer with an isocyanate and a crosslinking agent. Polyurethane is one of the most versatile materials for making parts. It is available in a variety of sizes, durometers, formulations, tolerances and colors for use in a wide range of applications. In addition to its unmatched versatility, polyurethane is also one of the strongest and most durable materials.
Polyurethane rods are tough and deliver OEMs outstanding longevity without sacrificing performance. Below are several of the advantages offered by polyurethane rods and why OEMs choose these products over conventional materials like plastic and rubber.
- Excellent Crack Resistance: plastics often crack or break under impact loading or stress, especially at higher durometers (hardness). Conversely, polyurethane is not brittle and will maintain its strength and impact resistance over a range of durometers.
- Superior Abrasion Resistance: urethane components are able to withstand abrasive conditions and corrosive environments, prolonging the part life and setting urethane apart from other material options. Additionally, urethane rods can tolerate a wide range of operating temperatures and can be placed in humid or tropical locations, resulting in a broad range of geographical opportunities.
- Excellent Strength and Durability: polyurethane exhibits superb tensile strength and load bearing capabilities, allowing it to withstand more stress than many other materials.
- Superb Elasticity: polyurethane can be compressed up to 25% of its normal size and still rebound back to its original size. Conversely, metal is not an elastomer and has no ability to flex. On the other hand, plastics tend to stretch and either break or deform, unable to return to their original shape. Urethane has incredible elasticity and is able to be stretched and regain its shape without sacrificing strength or integrity.
- Outstanding Sound Dampening: urethane rods offer great shock absorption and noise reduction, resulting in a much quieter operating environment.
- Withstand Extreme Temperatures: some manufacturing environments experience harsh temperatures ranging from bitter cold to extreme heat. Fortunately, polyurethane rods are able to operate in these extreme temperatures without sacrificing quality or performance.
- Improved Reliability: urethane delivers a better value than parts made with other materials that often crack, break, tear, swell, deteriorate, and abrade. This is especially important in many industries where equipment must be highly reliable and equipment must remain operational.
- Outstanding Resistance to Chemicals: provides excellent resistance to oils, solvents, grease, and other contaminants. Additionally, urethane is also able to maintain its shape with little swelling, if any, when it contacts water or oils. Visit our website to learn more about polyurethane’s chemical compatibility.
- Readily Customizable: urethane parts are very easily customized. Custom polyurethane rods can be manufactured to a variety of customer-specific specs including color, size, formula, and durometer just to name a few.
- Cost-effective Solution: urethane parts are typically less expensive to mold than metal, especially for low volume runs and prototype models.
- Superior Longevity: most of the properties mentioned above lead to a longer life span for urethane products. A longer service life results in fewer downtimes for maintenance, yielding operational efficiencies and lower manufacturing costs – further making the case that polyurethane is superior to conventional materials.
Looking for a urethane manufacturing partner that delivers high quality, reliable polyurethane rods?
Contact the experts at PSI to learn more about our selection of standard and custom polyurethane rods and round rod stock.
PSI Urethanes Polyurethane Rods
With over 50 years of experience delivering the highest quality urethane products, PSI stands unequaled in helping companies in hundreds of industries around the world apply urethane products to their critical business applications.
Our team can help solve your manufacturing problems whether you are challenged with high impact operations, intense load-bearing applications, or harsh operating environments. We are the world’s leading supplier of urethane products that are stronger, tougher, more durable, and more versatile than any conventional elastomers and plastics available today. PSI Urethanes offers a variety of cast polyurethane products including rods.
PSI is a trusted provider of custom and standard urethane rods. PSI provides rods in custom diameters, lengths, hardness, and colors with little or no tooling costs. Additionally, PSI’s custom polyurethane rods outlast other materials, and save costs for customers by eliminating waste from drop-offs. For more information on PSI Urethanes’ polyurethane rods, watch our short video.
Using premium grade urethane in custom formulations, we produce the highest quality custom cast urethane parts, and can also create prototypes from your drawings or sketches. Custom polyurethane rods are available from PSI with the following specifications:
- Standard durometer (hardness): 60A, 70A, 80A, 90A
- Rod O.D. tolerances: (3/8″ to 1.75″) +0.063 / -0.010″; (2″ to 6″) +0.125 / -0.010″
- Standard color: Natural, and custom colors are available
- Custom sizes in diameter and length
It should be noted that not all manufacturers have the same capabilities when it comes to custom polyurethane rod production. At PSI, we stand out from the competition as we can create custom formulations to meet your unique needs using premium grade raw materials. Our team of professionals offer a range of fully customizable polyurethane rod solutions that are durable, long-lasting, and able to tolerate challenging operating environments. Additionally, we offer in-house production, avoiding unnecessary third parties in your supply chain which leads to a quicker, more cost-effective manufacturing process.
About PSI Urethanes
Since 1966, through our own independent research and activity in the Polyurethane Manufacturers Association, PSI Urethanes has stayed on the leading edge of urethane technology – including developing advances in new materials, comprehensive designs, and processing technologies. Today we are among the most respected and trusted suppliers of custom polyurethane products.
We operate from our 45,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, which houses an extensive stock of polyurethane products. Our fully equipped manufacturing facility includes a versatile range of processing machinery, which allows us to work on unique, one-of-a-kind projects, as well as high volume components. Our in-house engineering, tooling, and custom mold shop, produces custom and stock production orders with exceptionally fast turn-around times. From conception to prototyping, to final production runs, our technical representatives and design engineers will work closely with your staff to meet your critical tolerances and specifications. You are guaranteed to receive experienced, professional, and personalized service from the first contact through your on-time delivery, with complete confidentiality and dedication to protecting your good name.
PSI Urethanes specializes in custom polyurethane products. Contact us today to see how we can help with your next project, or give us a call at 1-800-888-5156.