From material selection and product design to pre-launch validation testing and failure analysis, there are many elements to a successful rubber product. A rubber consulting team can offer extra support at every step of the process.
Rubber Consulting
There are many benefits to hiring an expert rubber consultant. If your internal team has limited bandwidth to take on new projects, a third-party consultant can speed up the entire process by creating more capacity. Plus, third-party consultants can offer specialized expertise that your in-house team may not have, allowing you to expand your product line without having to hire additional team members.
Rubber consulting support may include:
Rubber Product Design
Product design is a complex process with many steps. From material selection to compound formulation to product engineering, there are many important decisions to make, each of which impacts the final product. Many companies may turn to a rubber consultant to help them think through their options.
ACE Laboratories can deliver expert guidance, backed up by reliable testing data, to help you make confident decisions regarding product design. We can advise you on material selection based on your desired performance attributes and your product’s intended service environment.
The experts at ACE also offer rubber engineering support. We’ll work with you to understand the stressors and forces your product will encounter in service, such as shock or compression, and help you develop a long-lasting design that can perform under those conditions.
Rubber Manufacturing
The manufacturing process is just as important—and just as nuanced—as product design. For example, rubber compounds must be optimized for both final product performance and the manufacturing environment.
Many of the experts at ACE Laboratories have hands-on experience in rubber processing, compounding, and manufacturing, so we understand the real-world challenges our clients face on a regular basis. We offer small-batch mixing services to help our clients iterate toward an optimized compound and study the flow and processability of different formulations. We can work directly with your team to determine the best manufacturing method for your product based on your goals, budget, and timeline.
Rubber Failure Analysis
Reports of product failure can be incredibly stressful for manufacturers. Understanding exactly what went wrong is crucial to keeping people safe, preventing future issues, and protecting the company’s reputation. However, much to the chagrin of manufacturers, there are many reasons why a rubber product might fail in the field. When investigating the cause of the problem, knowing where to start can be overwhelming.
The experts at ACE Laboratories have years of experience conducting strategic, forensic investigations of product failures. We understand the nuances of product issues and can uncover even the most unexpected factors that may have contributed to the problem. Our team will help you understand exactly what happened and why. We can also help you develop a comprehensive plan for addressing the problem, so you can get back on track.
Expert Witness
There are times when product issues can lead to litigation. When the matter at hand is related to a highly complex technical issue, it’s important to have an expert witness who understands the nuances and can explain them clearly to a diverse audience, including those with non-technical backgrounds.
The rubber consultants at ACE Laboratories offer expert witness services to those needing technical support in legal situations. We have ample experience navigating these types of cases and know how to handle court settings and legal environments. You can count on us for calm, professional support and clear communication throughout. We also have an on-staff attorney to help provide guidance to our team as we navigate litigations, patents, product failures, and other situations.
Rubber Testing
Our rubber consulting team has access to a state-of-the-art testing laboratory and a full suite of analytical instrumentation, so we can back up our guidance with reliable testing data. Our testing capabilities include:
Chemical analysis of rubber materials
Chemical analysis is key to understanding materials at an elemental level. This may include characterization studies, purity analysis, impurity identification, and more, via chromatographic techniques and other advanced methods. Chemical analysis may also be used to reverse engineer a competitor product or benchmark different iterations of a project in development.
ACE Laboratories is proud to invest in quality analytical instrumentation so we can deliver valuable chemical data on rubber materials. Our portfolio of analytical services includes wet chemistry capabilities, moisture and thermogravimetric analyses, thermal conductivity, and more.
Material properties testing for rubber materials
Physical testing is crucial for understanding the unique performance characteristics and environmental resilience of a given rubber product or material. A physical testing laboratory can recreate the rigors of the service environment, whether that’s extreme weather or temperatures, repeat force, or another factor, and measure how a sample reacts and behaves when subjected to repeat exposure. This data is crucial for understanding the lifecycle of a product.
The experts at ACE Laboratories have years of experience designing custom physical testing programs to predict and study the performance of a product or material. If you’re seeking to understand how your product will handle its service environment, we can deliver objective performance data and help you make decisions on how to proceed.
ACE Laboratories
ACE Laboratories is proud to offer unmatched rubber consulting support, backed up by top-quality laboratory data and our many years of experience in a variety of technical roles. Our experts have diverse backgrounds working in all parts of the rubber industry, so we have first-hand experience dealing with the exact issues that our clients face on a daily basis.
ACE Laboratories is also committed to excellent service, every step of the way. We’ve specifically designed our business model and operations to ensure that we can provide timely responses to everything our clients need, so they’re never left waiting when time is of the essence.
If you need a rubber consultant or have questions about a project, get in touch with our team >