close icon Logo Created with Sketch.
  • Capabilities
  • Parts & Assemblies
  • Materials
  • About
  • Careers
  • Blog
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact
Rl Hudson LinkedIn page Rl Hudson Youtube channel

Privacy & Cookie Policy

© 2010 RL Hudson & Company.

Web Design by Station8

Menu

RL Hudson Site Search
RL Hudson Logo

+1 (918) 259-6600

Call RL Hudson

Latest Articles

Meet Mario Del Real, RL Hudson Director of Business Development

Tell us about your experience as a Territory Manager at RL Hudson? I started at RL Hudson in 2015 supporting the mid-west region as a Territory Manager. I was responsible […]

Posted March 3rd - Jessica Putz

Meet Mike Glynn, RL Hudson Territory Manager

Tell us about your experience as a Territory Manager at RL Hudson? What I am most proud of is our integrity and how we treat our customers.  We have a […]

Posted September 2nd - Jessica Putz

How have sales changed for RL Hudson during the pandemic?

Amid COVID-19 pandemic, how has the way RL Hudson sells to current and future customers look different? Very early on when COVID-19 became an international crisis we really had to […]

Posted August 25th - Jessica Putz

RL Hudson addresses supply chain challenges

What are some supply chain issues RL Hudson is facing? In today’s supply chain, challenges are around every corner and driven by a wide range of factors, including demand, labor […]

Posted July 20th - Jessica Putz

RLH Manufacturing – Above & Beyond

RL Hudson Manufacturing has been “Making Above and Beyond Seem Ordinary” lately. Living this Core Value was evident in recent weeks when our Customer Service Team, Manufacturing Team, Tooling Department, […]

Posted March 5th - christina

RLH voted BEST PLACES TO WORK 2019 by Rubber & Plastics News

Posted December 2nd - christina

RLH Employees honored as 2019 Emerging Mfg Leaders

Please join us in congratulating Hannah Snyder and Kasey Moore for being selected as 2019 Emerging Manufacturing Leaders. This award is sponsored by the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce and […]

Posted August 27th - christina

Our custom molded plastic product development process

Posted April 23rd - RL Hudson

The Absolute Best Plastic Injection Molded Design Tips and Considerations

Design and molding. When it comes to custom plastic injection molded parts, these two undertakings must be considered together. As a top manufacturer of custom plastic injection molded parts, we […]

Posted March 28th - RL Hudson

Design Areas Prone to Stress Concentration

Posted March 14th - RL Hudson

Plastics Overview: From History to Molding Advice for your Custom Plastic Parts

Plastic — in today’s world, it’s just about everywhere. Items we come into contact with on a daily basis, from smartphones to SmartWater bottles, make plastic ubiquitous. Sure, you may […]

Posted January 28th - RL Hudson

Posted December 28th - RL Hudson

The Long Run Advantage of Designing Custom Plastic Parts for Heavy Trucks with Reliability and Longevity in Mind

On the open road, it’s still endless entertainment for kids traveling in cars to hear heavy trucks blow their air horns as they pass. Do you remember signaling to get […]

Posted November 28th - RL Hudson

Rubber Hose Manufacturing

Posted October 30th - RL Hudson

Rubber Hose Manufacturing: From Anatomy to Applications and Beyond

Whether it’s a roaring truck engine or speeding Ski-doo cutting through fresh powder, you can bet vibration plays an important role when it comes to designing and manufacturing parts for […]

Posted September 26th - RL Hudson

Vibration Control

Posted August 31st - RL Hudson

How A Part Gets Its Start

Whether it’s plastic injection molded parts for marine engines or rubber components for recreational marine applications, the road from part conception to delivery is long and winding. What does it […]

Posted July 31st - RL Hudson

RL Hudson & Company announces acquisition of specialized precision plastic injection molding company, Rapid Production Tooling, Inc.

TULSA, Oklahoma — RL Hudson has completed the acquisition of Colorado based Rapid Production Tooling, Inc., a technically superior injection molding tooling company.  The acquisition will allow RL Hudson to […]

Posted July 2nd - christina

Metal to Plastic Conversions

Posted June 27th - RL Hudson

Concepting for Cost Control: How Design for Manufacturability Creates the Perfect Plastic Part

So you need custom molded plastic parts. Maybe it’s for a marine engine application. Maybe it’s plastic injection molded parts for medium or heavy trucks. Or maybe it’s molded plastic […]

Posted May 31st - RL Hudson

HUDSON TECHFILES | Materials Lab Capabilities

Posted July 6th - RL Hudson

A great rubber product often requires both effective design and an innovative material. RL Hudson has remarkable capabilities in both areas. Our award-wining design engineers continue year-after-year to create new products that solve customers’ problems and save them money. And now, we have a material development laboratory that allows us to be equally innovative with materials. Here is a rundown of the equipment and capabilities of our in-house lab.

MIXING Designed to facilitate research and development in a lab setting, our Farrel Banbury® BR1600 mixer is smaller than a production mixer. It is, however, the finest 1.5-liter (3-pound) mixer on the market, incorporating many advanced features typically found only on larger machines. These features include a programmable logic controller (PLC). The PLC allows operating parameters — such as temperature and speed of the mixer’s internal rotors — to be closely controlled, stored in memory, and easily retrieved, thus facilitating repeatability and batch-to-batch consistency.

MILLING Once a batch of rubber is mixed, it goes to our rubber mill, which, like the mixer, was made by Farrel and customized to our specifications. It is a variable speed, variable friction, cabinet- style lab mill. The mill serves two main functions. First, it gives the batch a chance to cool (mixing generates a great deal of heat). Second, the mill facilitates sheeting (flattening) of the rubber to a specified thickness. Once this thickness is achieved and the rubber comes off the mill, samples are taken for testing

RHEOMETRIC TESTS After mixing a batch of rubber, we determine its processing characteristics by performing tests on our moving die rheometer (MDR). Manufactured by TECH/PRO, our MDR is designed in accordance with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D 5289 standard, as well as the ISO 6502 standard. The MDR holds a rubber sample firmly between a pair of heated dies. As one of the dies rotates across a small arc, the other die gauges the reaction torque generated in the sample. The machine calculates a “cure curve” showing a number of processing characteristics, including optimum cure time for the sample.

VISCOSITY TESTS We can also gauge the viscosity (resistance to flow) of a rubber batch. This is important because a compound’s viscosity determines its ability to fill a mold properly. Different molding methods — compression, transfer, and injection molding are the big three — require different material viscosities in order to work well. We use a Mooney Viscometer (MV) to gauge viscosity of both raw rubber stock and compounded rubber. Our MV was designed in accordance with the ASTM D 1676 and ISO 289 standards. Our MV can also conduct stress relaxation and pre-vulcanization tests.

PRESS CURING The tests outlined thus far are all performed on uncured compound, but there is also much to be learned by testing cured rubber. Curing (also known as vulcanization) is the heatinduced process whereby the long chains of the rubber molecules become cross-linked by a vulcanizing agent to form microscopic three-dimensional elastic structures. This reaction transforms soft, non-cross-linked materials into strong elastic products. We cure rubber samples in a compression molding hydraulic press with a clamping force of 65 tons. Though our press can mold prototypes, we primarily use it to prepare cured slabs and buttons. These slabs and buttons are used for testing of original physical properties, low and high temperature resistance, compression set resistance, and fluid resistance.

ORIGINAL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES TESTS Original physical properties include hardness, tensile strength, modulus, and ultimate elongation. We check hardness using a Shore® durometer tester conforming to the ASTM D 2240 standard. Though Shore readings are the preference for most domestic companies, we can also generate readings in International Rubber Hardness Degrees (IRHD) per ASTM D 1415. Our Instron® model 5567 tensometer allows us to conduct tensile tests on dumbbells stamped from the molded slabs. The dumbbell is clamped between a pair of grips and pulled steadily until it breaks. The force being exerted on the dumbbell at the point of rupture is that sample’s tensile strength. Tensile tests also allow us to determine other characteristics of a sample, including modulus (the force required to produce a certain elongation, such as 100% elongation) and ultimate elongation (elongation when the dumbbell breaks). These characteristics are plotted into a tensile curve. Studying tensile test data gives us insight into how a material will perform when molded into finished parts. We can also conduct tear resistance, compression, and deflection tests using the Instron.

LOWTEMPERATURE TESTS We conduct low temperature tests using a Thermotron® environmental test chamber. Our Thermotron also allows us to conduct low-to-high cycling tests from -73° to 177° C (-100° to 350° F) at a rate of 3° C per minute.

HIGH TEMPERATURE TESTS We conduct heat aging tests of non-volatiles using five Blue M® horizontal airflow convection ovens. Air is heated to a precisely controlled temperature, then passed over rubber samples inside a specially designed chamber. These tests are important because most of the physical and chemical properties of rubber are impacted when it meets high temperatures, especially for prolonged periods. Studying whether a sample hardens, cracks, or undergoes other changes after being in a heated test environment gives valuable clues as to how that material will perform in high temperature service conditions. We can also conduct life cycling tests ranging from room temperature to 180° C.

COMPRESSION SET TESTS Cured rubber buttons are used to gauge compression set, which is the result of progressive stress relaxation. We place the buttons between the steel plates of a test fixture, then force the plates together using a bolt-tightening device and steel spacers. The buttons are compressed a particular amount (typically 25% of original thickness) for a specific time (such as 22 hours) at a given temperature (such as 100° C). These time and temperature variables are based on anticipated service conditions.We control the temperature by conducting our compression tests inside the same Blue M ovens used for high temperature tests. Once the compression is released, we measure the button. This measurement reveals to what extent the rubber has “set”; that is, not returned to its original thickness.

FLUID RESISTANCE TESTS We conduct fluid resistance tests using an aluminum heat block made by the Akron Rubber Development Laboratory (ARDL). Our heat block has a digital temperature controller (up to 400° C maximum operating temperature) and holds ten test tubes. We use the block to study elevated temperature aging of dumbbell samples in high flash point or non-volatile fluids.

RL Hudson designs and supplies a broad range of molded rubber and plastic products to many of the most respected manufacturing companies in the world.

HUDSON TECHFILES | Computational Fluid Dynamics - Next >
RL Hudson strainer lid partRL Hudson strainer container partRL Hudson strainer part

Tell us about your project

  • Hidden
  • Drop files here or
    Max. file size: 50 MB.
    • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
    White, Right facing arrow