Im working on a sandal project and I want to use a TPE like material as the material needs to be sanitary, stretchable, injection mold able and reasonably priced. i have found a few manufacturers for TPE
Now my questions, for companies like this do they just provide the material? Or will they also do the molding. I realize I could just call em up and ask, but wanted to sound as remotely professional as possible so I figured I would ask here first.
How do most companies call out materials? Do they have a single point contact for multiple materials or do they go to manufacturers and the manufacturers contact the material supplies?
Material suppliers only offer the bags of plastic pellets for injection. You will have to find an injection molder to inject the parts from the material. Most all injection molders can inject TPE, nothing complicated.
Companies might be familiar with the biggest brand names of TPE like Krayton or Hytrel, injection molders or materiel suppliers might offer alternatives based on requirement such as over-molding or other characteristics.
Stick with a good material supplier. I have seen some experiments with TPE (which is essentially oil and plastic ) here in China that were real disasters of material science.
Thanks so much, I have a few resources for Injection molding but was unsure on the material side of things. Will molders care where the material comes from?
They should not care if there has been a good history between them and the material suppliers or distributors. With TPE there are lots of choices. They usually buy what you spec or propose an alternative if they have some in stock or experience using that material.
For researching the applicability of a given material, the material suppliers are your best bet for contact. All of the big houses, DuPont, GE, BASF, etc have treasure troves of documents about each material and are usually enthusiastic to share the info in order to get their materials used.