Do you buy rubber sheets in bulk and convert them into finished parts at your facility? As What’s the True Cost of Cutting Rubber? explains, the price you pay for uncut rubber is just a fraction of your true costs. By partnering with Elasto Proxy, you can outsource fabrication and reduce your direct labor, direct material, and manufacturing overhead.
Yet there’s still more value you can derive. By combining custom fabrication with value-added services, you can transform how you source and install rubber parts. Moving these steps to Elasto Proxy can reduce manufacturing waste at your facility and give your purchasing team more predictable pricing.
Through water jet cutting, kitting, custom packaging, and pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) taping, Elasto Proxy helps manufacturers move seamlessly from raw rubber sheets to ready-to-install parts. Keep reading to learn how this integrated workflow reduces assembly time, minimizes waste, simplifies inventory, and improves production efficiency.
Water Jet Cutting: Precision Without Tooling
For precision cut gaskets, transforming raw materials into finished parts uses water jet cutting – a computer-controlled process that uses a fine, high-pressure stream of water to slice cleanly through rubber without distortion. Water jet cutting also works with parts, such as thermal or acoustic insulation, which are made from sheets laminated together.
For low-to-medium volumes, water jet cutting is a smart alternative to die cutting, which requires metal tooling that can deform soft elastomers under compression. It’s also a better choice than laser cutting, which can create burn marks; and CNC cutting, which can leave a rough, torn finish.
Water jet cutting from Elasto Proxy offers these benefits.
No Tooling Saves Time and Money
With water jet cutting, there’s no tooling to wait for or pay for. That accelerates prototyping and production, but here’s something else to consider. Because your computer aided design (CAD) file determines the cutting path, an engineer can revise a part design without scrapping expensive metal tooling and then waiting for new tooling to arrive.
Fast, Clean Cuts for Precise Shapes
Water jet cutting produces smooth, clean edges without stretching, tearing, or burning the rubber material. Whether your design calls for intricate internal cutouts, tight corners, or angled edges, Elasto Proxy cuts parts that meet dimensional tolerances established by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA).
Parts Nesting Maximizes Material Yields
Because water jet cutting is a digital manufacturing process, Elasto Proxy can use nesting software to arrange multiple part geometries across a rubber sheet before cutting begins. By interlocking these different shapes like puzzle pieces, nesting achieves maximum material yields and reduces scrap while lowering your per-part material costs
Kitting: Consolidating Your Supply Chain
Are you concerned about reducing costs and improving efficiency? Then the way that cut parts arrive at your facility is just as important as how they were cut. Kitting groups two or more related components into a single stocking unit (SKU). That helps streamline operations from your front office to the receiving dock to the warehouse to the assembly line.
Kitting from Elasto Proxy offers these benefits.
Reduce Your Vendor List and Consolidate SKUs
Without kitting, you issue separate purchase orders to different suppliers. There are multiple vendors to onboard, monitor, and manage. With kitting, you issue one purchase order to Elasto Proxy. Reducing your vendor list cuts administrative overhead, and SKU consolidation simplifies your bill of material (BOM).
Simplify Receiving and Inventory Management
With kitting, a receiver logs a single box. A warehouse worker then stocks or picks one box instead many. If your business uses just-in-time inventory, that box can even bypass the warehouse and move from receiving right to your assembly line. Because a kit corresponds to a finished assembly or sub-assembly, everything an installer needs is inside.
Reduce Picking and Processing Mistakes
Many industrial rubber parts look nearly identical. The picking and processing mistakes that ensue cost your business time and money. When all the parts you need are pre-sorted into a single kit, pickers and installers don’t waste time hunting through bins or accidentally installing the wrong part.
Custom Packaging: Engineered for Your Assembly Line
Standard bulk packaging forces your assemblers to open multiple cartons, dig through protective wrap, and sort rubber parts before they can begin installation. Custom packaging turns incoming shipments into an extension of your assembly line, and Elasto Proxy can tailor your packaging to support your workflows.
Custom packaging offers these benefits.
Parts are Marked and Labeled
Elasto Proxy offers parts marking and tag-and-bag methods so that individual components or sub-assembly bags are clearly labeled with your part numbers, barcodes, or workstation designations. Clear identification promotes traceability and eliminates guesswork on the assembly line.
Parts are Packaged in Assembly Order
For multi-step assembly, Elasto Proxy can pack components in the sequence of their installation. The first part an installer needs is on top, with subsequent parts layered underneath in order of use. Assemblers simply reach in, pull the next part, and install it without sorting.
Installation Instructions are Included
Custom kits can include printed diagrams, QR codes, or step-by-step installation instructions. Proving your installers with these visual references at their point-of-use shortens training time for new technicians and ensures consistent, repeatable assembly quality across shifts.
Ready for Installation: Accelerating Line Speed
The final step in value-added fabrication involves delivering components that don’t require additional operations for installation. Along with water jet cutting and kitting, Elasto Proxy can apply pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) to rubber parts such as floor matting and thermal-acoustic insulation.
There are three main benefits.
Peel-and-Stick Installation
Prior to water jet cutting, Elasto Proxy can laminate a PSA backing with a release liner onto rubber sheeting. The cut parts you receive have edge-to-edge adhesive coverage, and installers just need to peel back the liner and press the part firmly in place. Later, you can install plastic pins or metal fasteners (if necessary).
Assembly Efficiency
It’s easier to install pins or fasteners when the part to install is already in place. The PSA backings that Elasto Proxy offers also eliminate headaches associated with spray-on adhesives, which are messy and require time-consuming surface preparation and cleanup. They may also contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Moving From Raw Materials to Value-Added Fabrication
Buying uncut rubber sheets instead of finished parts only seems like a cost savings. When you include direct labor, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead, your true costs are far greater than the PO total. By partnering with Elasto Proxy, you can get value-added fabrication that reduces your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for rubber parts.
Ready to review your BOM and discover how value-added fabrication can lower your TCO?
