Elastomers

By manipulation of polymer chemistry, urethane formulations can be custom-tailored to achieve a wide range of physical properties that include:

Elastomers
- durable and resilient
- full range of flex system from soft and flexible to rigid

Tubbs Snowshoe
Tubbs Snowshoe of Stowe Vermont presented Component Molding (Milfoam) with a challenge: for a new line of shoes they sought to replace the labor intensive fabricated snowshoe platform with a molded component. Component Molding (Milfoam) proposed that Tubbs take the project one step further- rather than molding the platform and relying on the traditional method of wrapping it around and riveting it to a tubular aluminum frame, why not insert the frame into a mold and encapsulate it with a RIM urethane? The final result is an economical snowshoe which actually outperforms its traditional counterparts. The urethane elastomer has sufficient strength to hold the structural components together but is resilient enough to act as a membrane for the platform areas of the shoe.

Component Molding (Milfoam) assisted in part design, designed and machined the molds, and worked with tubing vendors to develop inserts to bring this project to fruition. We currently mold four different styles of snowshoe in three colors for Tubbs.

Beverage Dispensing Machine
Dispensing beverages in glass bottles presents a unique set of problems, especially when the machine design requires that the bottles can be dropped from elevations of up to four feet into the delivery chute.

Component Molding (Milfoam) supplied Dixie Narco, a leading manufacturer of vending machines, with the solution: a molded urethane bottle recovery assembly which is resilient enough to receive and deliver glass bottles without breakage but has sufficient structure to replace traditional metal and plastic materials.

The recovery unit consists of three RIM molded elastomer components and two vacuum formed assemblies, all produced and assembled at Component Molding (Milfoam). The finished product quickly and easily installs into the vending machine at Dixie Narco.

The chute has varying thickness for strength and resiliency. It gently cushions
the free fall of the glass bottles and orients them for delivery.