Urethane has a wide range of versatility and as such is the preferred material of choice for many industrial applications.

Here’s how urethane compares to rubber, metal, and plastic:

Rubber

Although rubber has its advantages above other materials, when it comes to urethane – it doesn’t compare, especially for applications such as spacers, bushings, and other high load-bearing applications.

When compared to rubber, urethane has a higher load-bearing capacity and offers better resistance for abrasion, chemicals, oil, grease, oxygen, and ozone.

In companies, rubber parts tend to need replacements more often than their urethane counterparts. This cannot just lead to increased downtime and decreased productivity but can also lead to an uptick in costs.

Metal

In industrial applications where noise, abrasion, weight, pressure, electrical conductivity, and magnetism are important, urethane becomes a more preferred option than metal.

In terms of abrasion, urethane lasts longer and costs less to mold and produce when compared to metal. For Electrical conductivity, urethane is also better to work with because its molecular composition doesn’t allow it to conduct electricity or corrode.

When you choose urethane over metal for your industrial applications you rest assured there are improvements in noise reduction, impact resistance, fabricating costs, sparking, flexibility, and abrasion damage.

Plastic

Conducting a one-to-one comparison of plastic and urethane may be a tough call because plastics are available in various formulations too. But in the general sense urethane is superior to plastic when it comes to features like noise reduction, abrasion/impact resistance, and its ability to rebound.

Engineered parts and components for industrial applications that have lot’s of wear and tear, impact or abrasion prefer cast polyurethane parts!