Development

Development

Feasibility study

When development is done by the customer, Techné engineers provide advice in order to optimise the profile depending on chosen manufacturing process. Parting lines, materials, tolerances are reviewed with the customer.

Parting line positioning

Thanks to its experience and process knowledge, Techné will position the parting lines in areas with little or no impact for the sealing. Techné production drawing is then submitted to customer approval.

Tolerancing

Rubber parts are toleranced according to the chosen process, and the appropriate international standard. Warning: Elastomers are flexible and deformable; therefore standards and regulations defined for plastic and metal parts mau under no circumstances apply to them.

Centering: when creating the drawing, it is highly recommended to use centered tolerances. Due to the moulding process (we do not strat from a raw part), the mould production, and the material shrinkage, there will not be any material savings if tolerances are note centered.

File share

For the production of the moulding tools Techné's technical department prefers to work with 3D CAD models with centered dimensions: *.stp files.

Material knowledge

There are so many different elastomers types, crosslinking agents, hardness, compression set, etc. Each compound has it own characteristics.

Depending on the application, environment, and the required mechanical properties, Techné will select the appropriate compound for your application.

Example-Customer-Drawing-Techne

Techné design

From the customer seal specification sheet

When the customer has a clear idea to what profile he needs, Techné will then provide its expertise.

  • A complete revision of the required specifications (environment, dynamic/static, temperature, pressure, standards and certifications, etc.)
  • Optimisation of the seal's profile.
Bague-Anti-Pollution-Agriculture-BE-Techne

Example: Anti-pollution seals for agricultural devices

What does the customer want?

  • Seal approval after tests bench
  • Use parameters (pressure, speed, temperature)
  • Characterisation of the results: regular sealing checks at chosen frequencies.

What does Techné do?

  • Chooses a meterial with an optimised abrasion resistance
  • Recommands the appropriate housing surface roughness
  • Offers a bench test approved seal.

From a performance specification sheet

  • Study of customers' specification sheet
  • Proposal of one or more sealing solutions
  • Prototype and production quotation
Joint-Boitier-BE-TEchne

Example: Box seal for electronic card

What does the customer want?

  • Static sealing from the outside to the inside
  • Wide temperature range
  • Resistant to high pressure washing
  • Maintain the seal in its groove
  • Suitable for automatic mounting

What does Techné do?

  • Designs a suitable profile
  • Selects a material compatible with the environment
  • Adds a T-Lub surface treatment to make automatic seal mounting easier.

Prototype

The prototype aims to determine sealing, to save time on the design and to avoid any modification on serial production moulding tool.

Techné offers various prototype manufacturing processes.

Machined prototypes

To be machined, a prototype must meet the following criteria:

  • High hardness 83 IRHD for rubber. 90 to 95 IRHD for thermoplastics
  • Revolution parts (milling, drilling, tapping can be done)
  • Minimum radius of 0.4mm.

Cut out prototypes

In its cutting division (Chromex), Techné manufactures sealing parts by automatic cutting process. This process, which is well suitable for gaskets, allows most 2D profiles from thickness 1 to 15mm depending on the material.

Stereolithography

Techné offers prototypes using a silicone mould obtained by stereolithography. The finished parts are made in PU resin or silicone material. These materials have a similar mechanical properties to elastomers. This process allows manufacturing of complex 3D and 2D profiles.

Prototype tool

The prototype tool is made for compression process and has a reduced number of cavities. It offers the following advantages:

  • Better representation of mass production parts
  • Use of same compounds as the one for mass production
  • Approval of cross linking parameters
  • Economical, flexible and faster realisation

Quality monitoring

Certificates

On request Techné can provide the following certificates together with the delivery of the parts (NF EN-10204):

  • 2.1 Declaration of compliance with the order without mentioning inspection results
  • 2.2 Declaration of compliance with the order mentionning inspection results on incoming batch
  • 3.1 Declaration of compliance with the order mentionning inspection results on each delivery

Initial Samples & Production Part Approval Process (PPAP)

The initial samples are the first parts coming out from the mass production tool. They are used for the approval/qualification of the tool and process. These initial samples can be delivered with PPAP.

Depending on the criticity of the parts, a PPAP requirement level (1, 2 or 3) is agreed together with the customer. Techné provides on request, a folder that can contain the following documents:

  • Cover page according to VDA
  • Dimenstional measurements
  • Material checking
  • Drawing
  • Process FMEA
  • Production flowchart
  • Control plan
  • Process capabilities
  • List of inspection tool
  • R&R (Repeatabilitity & Reproductibility)
  • Safety data sheet
  • Material data sheet
  • IMDS declaration (International Material Data System)
  • TPD sheet (Transport Packaging Description)
  • Certificate (see above)
  • Security plan
  • Tool picture


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