Urethane Properties, Benefits and Applications

Urethane Properties, Benefits and Applications

With the vast amount of urethane combinations and formulations it is understandable that there are many urethane properties which benefit certain applications. In general, urethanes can be processed in various hardness from 10 shore “OO” to 85 shore “D”.  The typical hardness range for industrial goods and durable highly wear resistant products is a slightly narrower range between roughly 40 shore “A” and 75 shore “D”.  This is the range that C.U.E. Inc. has focused on for many of our own proprietary formulations.  Read more about urethane properties and technical data.

Urethane Properties are measured by many physical properties such as hardness, compression set, ultimate tensile strength, tensile modulus, tensile set, elongation, tear strength, compression deflection, and abrasion resistance to mention a few.  The end result is that when compared to other “elastomers” like rubber or metals like steel and aluminum, polyurethane stands out in several areas and can be utilized in place of or in conjunction with other engineered materials to achieve the perfect part for nearly any application.

Listed below are just a few of the benefits and properties that make urethanes one of the most versatile materials choices for almost any given application. 

• Very wide range of hardness and modulus to chose from.
• Extremely durable and tough when compared to other engineered materials.
• Excellent Impact, abrasion, cut, and tear resistance.
• Typically out performs mild steel up to 10x in abrasive applications.
• Typically out performs rubber compounds up to 4x in abrasive applications.
• Superb resilience with exceptional elastomeric memory.
• Will not chunk out like rubber.
• Have very high load bearing capabilities.
• Great materials for dampening sound and vibrations.
• Excellent chemical resistance to solvents, petroleum products and other materials.
• Wide working temperature range (–30 deg. C to 100+ deg. C depending on formulation).
• Good temperature stability.
• Good to Excellent UV and Hydrolytic stability depending on formulations.
• Great electrical insulating properties.
• Excellent Dynamic properties for severe flex fatigue applications.
• Stretches up to 650% of its original length prior to failure.
• Non-marking on nearly any surface.
• Permanently bonds to metal, wood, cloth and other structural elements and substrates.
• Nearly any shape or configuration imaginable is possible to manufacture.
• A wide array of colors is available.
• Dual durometer parts are easily made to gain different properties within one part.
• Relatively low tension and compression set properties.
• Lower tooling costs than other molding processes.
• Economical for prototypes and low-volume production.

It is easy to see why urethanes are so popular.  If you have an application where one of these properties or benefits is crucial to your design please contact us and we will be happy to assist you in specifying the right urethane for your application. 

Urethane Applications

Urethanes have been used with great success with these applications and countless others. 

Obviously we could not list all of the current or possible applications for these materials.  However, we challenge you to let us turn your application into the next best application for polyurethane.  If there are any questions we can answer or clarifications that we can make please feel free to contact us.

For more information about C.U.E.'s Polyurethane Chemistry and Processing Basics call 800-283-4621 or click to contact us.