Ellington, Conn. — Dymotek Corp. has forged a special niche for itself by helping customers evaluate whether to use liquid silicone rubber and thermoplastics.
“What's unique with Dymotek is the ability to look at a product in development and give input whether it should be thought of as a silicone or thermoplastic part — we can do both,” said Victor Morando, chief technology officer at Dymotek .
The company operates out of two facilities — its main plant is a 35,000-square-foot facility in Ellington and a second operation is 48,000 square feet in Somers, Conn., which is about 10 minutes away. Both are set up similarly with both LSR and thermoplastics operations. Each also has a full quality control lab.
Dymotek currently runs nine machines that are set up for LSR. They range in size up to 220 tons of compression force. Six of the machines are two-shot machines and can make parts using both silicone and thermoplastics.
The company has 28 injection molding presses in all, with plans to add three more in 2017.
Dymotek got involved with the use of LSR 11 years ago when a customer asked if the company could do it.
Morando said that he had previous experience with it through a prior employer, and knew that it took different skills than its thermoplastics operations. So, Dymotek officials went to machinery maker Arburg to learn as much as they could — it meant going to the local Arburg Days as well as a trip to the main plant in Germany.
“We had one customer and one application when we first got involved,” he said.
“What we saw was that the level of silicone production had come so far. In the 1990s it was not scientific and its beginnings were crude. But when we saw the new technology we really approached it two ways. First what can we do for the customer. Second, as an opportunity to invest in silicone,” he said.
Morando said that by working with Arburg, which had supplied Dymotek's plastics injection molding machinery, the molder was able to gather new information. It also saw that Europe was ahead in the use of silicone.
“To make the jump to silicone everything has to be better,” he said, noting that requirements were quite different vs. thermoplastics.
Morando said that ordering an LSR machine was a highly detailed process and that everything was designed to better control what was happening on the machine. Factors such as mold time, air pressure and temperature are all crucial elements during the process.
The company works on components usually where air or fluid is involved. It does a variety of work for the medical, commercial/industrial, and food and beverage industries.
“Our growth has been very good. The business has more than doubled in the last three years. Our targeted growth is 10 percent,” he said.