Urethane Round Rods – Custom Urethane Rods

Urethane round rods are a custom product Plan Tech produces and we offer a full line of in-house molds ready to cast precision urethane round rods. By offering a full in-house machine shop we can also tailor the urethane rods to your exact specifications for the applications. We have a 1-foot urethane rod system that we can cast any urethane round rod diameter to the size required. We also are capable of making a urethane rods up to 4 feet in any durometer or color. Urethane round rods have excellent physical properties and are ideal in many situations where normal rubber or plastic would fail.

Urethane round rods hold up great against abrasion and solvents.  Urethane round rods are also available with a variety of additives that can be added to the material for the applications. We can cast the urethane round rods to have more lubricity while enhancing the wear properties. Custom cuts are also no problem for us. We can modify the custom urethane rods to include any detail necessary for the application as well.

We offer our customers a full mold making facility:

Open cast molding is the simplest and most common molding method for thermoset polyurethanes. Advantages: Since pressures and temperatures in the molding process are relatively low (ambient pressure and temps below 250F), the molds are more cost effective and can be made from a variety of materials including polyurethane. Open cast molding is good for parts with relatively open tolerances on one surface. If tolerances are tighter, a secondary finishing operation is an option.

In transfer or liquid injection, pressure is used to force the liquid polyurethane out of a reservoir and into the mold. Materials are generally injected at the bottom of the part and vented at the top for the prevention of air entrapment. Advantages: Makes use of fairly low-cost molds and can achieve thin cross-sections. Parts will have a sprue and an open surface for venting air which will require a finishing operation.

The part is split on a parting line, the halves are filled and the material is allowed to gel. The mold is then closed and placed into a compression press. Advantages: Compression molding yields a finished part with detail on all sides. Molds can be more expensive than those used in open casting or transfer, but parts can be quite detailed and elaborate.