Rubber, made in chemistry.Proven in the lab.
Christchurch, since 1989. One chemist. One lab. Compounds formulated to the duty cycle, proven in the lab.
Every component begins with a problemother materials can't solve.
Saltwater corrodes steel.
UV cracks plastic.
Vibration fatigues metal.
Heat warps thermoplastic.
Every environment a part lives in is, eventually, trying to destroy it. The component that survives is the component formulated for the failure mode it's facing, not the one closest at hand.
This is where chemistry earns its place.
Hundreds of compounds.Each formulated to a duty cycle.
RDL formulates hundreds of compounds and develops new ones all the time. The elastomers below are the families we reach for most, each with a job it was made for and a set of environments it will not survive. The chemist's work is matching the compound to the problem, not the other way around.
UV, ozone and weather. The default above the waterline.
Oil, fuel and hydraulic fluid. Where petroleum is involved.
Temperature extremes, hot and cold. Food-contact grades available.
Balanced oil, weather and flame resistance. The all-rounder.
Tear strength, resilience and shock absorption. Where mechanical loading dominates.
Aggressive chemicals, fuels and continuous high heat.
Abrasion resistance and resilience. A hard-wearing, general-purpose compound.
High resilience and low-temperature flex. Often blended for rebound and wear.
If the compound the brief calls for isn't on the list, the chemist makes it.
What gets measured.What gets proven.
The lab is where claims become numbers. RDL's on-site lab measures the properties that matter to a part, using established ISO test methods, whenever a specification calls for them.
Tensile strength and elongation at break
Compound stretches to spec without tearing below threshold
Indentation hardness, durometer Shore A
Compound reads within the specified Shore A band
Compression set under sustained load
Compound returns to shape after defined hold time and temperature
Tear strength, resistance to crack propagation
Compound resists tearing above the specified force
Heat aging, accelerated thermal degradation
Compound retains specified properties after defined oven cycle
If it can't be measured, it doesn't ship.
From bench to floor,without translation.
Most rubber componentry is engineered in one place and made in another. The result is loss: of detail, of spec discipline, of the chemist's intent. RDL keeps R&D and production under one roof and on one team. The compound that passes the lab is the compound that ships from the floor. Same chemistry, same chemist, same building.
The Lab
The Compound
The Mill
The Lab Test
The Press
The Floor
Marine Flex. Engineered elastic mooring.
Chain snatches under wave loading and shocks the dock. Rope chafes and degrades under UV. Marine Flex does neither: a custom Natural rubber compound, anchored conventionally, absorbing wave loading through controlled elastic deformation. The originals are still in the water.
Bring us the problem.We'll engineer the part.
If the application doesn't have a stock answer, that's where the work starts. Send the brief. Describe the environment. Tell us where conventional materials are failing, or where you're trying to specify something that doesn't exist yet. The chemist will read it. We'll come back with a compound, a geometry, a cycle count, and a path to production.