Here’s How Urethane Castings Can Help Your Houston, TX Business

In Houston, urethane castings are playing an increasingly important role in the manufacturing process. There are several reasons why. In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at urethane castings, their production applications, and the important advantages urethane castings provide compared to injection molding and other methods.

Urethane casting is a manufacturing process that uses liquid polyurethane and epoxy resins to create an accurate replica of a desired object or part. It’s very similar to the injection molding process.

How are Urethane Castings Made?

First, a master part/pattern is created. The master pattern serves as a template for making the mold the part will be cast from. While this master pattern can be fabricated using CNC or hand carving methods, today most urethane-casting master patterns are made using a 3D printer.

Once the master pattern has been completed, it will be placed in liquid silicone to create the mold. Once the silicone has cured, the mold is cut into two parts and the master pattern part is removed. The highly detailed impression made by the master part will be used to cast an accurate duplicate of the original part.

A mixture of liquid polyurethane or epoxy resin along with fillers, pigments, and reinforcing agents is  poured into the mold. Once the mixture has cured and solidified, the mold is opened, and the urethane casting inside is removed. Depending on the part, it may require further finishing or be ready for immediate use.

Advantages of Urethane Castings for Businesses in Houston, TX

Urethane casting provides a number of advantages when it comes to versatility, cost-effectiveness, and customization.  They possess excellent mechanical properties, chemical resistance, and high durability, and can be tailored to meet a wide range of specific requirements, such as hardness, flexibility, and color.

As far as quality goes, urethane-cast parts are basically indistinguishable from injection-molded parts with similar strength and durability properties. Urethane castings can achieve geometries impossible for injection-molded parts. They have a much faster turnaround rate than other processes and are less expensive to produce.

Some of the applications for urethane castings in Houston, TX include:

• Rapid prototyping. Urethane castings to quickly and easily create functional prototypes for design validation.
• Replacement parts. Urethane castings provide an easy, cost-effective way to produce parts that may be too costly to produce, too difficult to obtain, or no longer in current production.
• Low to medium production runs. Urethane castings can be more cost-effective for small to medium-production runs than injection molding and other techniques.

ProTek Models & 3D Printing: Your Source for Urethane Castings in Houston, TX

ProTek Models and 3D Printing are leading producers of high-quality urethane castings in Houston, TX. Few companies possess the experience we do when it comes to making master patterns, silicone molds, and castings. We’ve created urethane castings for a wide range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, defense, OEM, oil and gas, and more.

Located just north of Houston in Conroe, TX, ProTek serves customers all over the Lone Star state. In addition to urethane castings, we also offer customers state-of-the-art FDM and SLA 3D print production, rapid prototyping services, replacement and custom auto part printing, and custom scale model building.

Our talented staff, years of experience, state-of-the-art machinery, and high-quality materials mean there is no urethane casting project we can’t tackle. You can reach us through our website or call ProTek Models at (832) 968-6636 to get a quote or learn more about our urethane castings in Houston, TX.