Custom Services

LONGWOOD has the ability to put together design services, diverse molding capabilities and an unmatched quality system to solve your most complex performance and manufacturing challenges. Our capabilities range from hand-built custom engineered components, to high volume production requirements using state-of-the-art equipment. Our engineers are also experts in high precision tooling design and full-scale production techniques. Whatever your application requirements are, we'll put our years of experience to work for you providing parts of the finest quality, reliability, and performance delivered on-time.

A Case History

Goal: Improve Adhesion of Elastomer to Plastic in Composite Part or Resolve Adhesive Failure in Composite Part

Application:  An industrial seal composed of fluorosilicone molded onto a nylon base.

Challenge: Improve adhesion of fluorosilicone to the base to resolve performance problems that occur when the adhesive fails.

Solution: Due to its molecular structure, fluorosilicone is notoriously difficult to bond to other materials. Rather than relying on chemical adhesives to secure the bond, Longwood engineers redesigned the part to increase mechanical bonding. This approach gave a strong bond that held up during the stresses in the application. The next hurdle was designing a manufacturing process that would consistently make a high quality part. We decided on a flashless overmolding process which molded the rubber directly onto the nylon base. Since it was flashless, there was no excess rubber to remove. Longwood's engineers developed the special tools and modified the press to accommodate them.

The results:

• No more field failures
• High quality parts made with less waste of high cost rubber
• Shorter lead times, with parts inspected and boxed as they exit the molding machine