Frequently asked questions about silicone rubber manufacturing

We are a family run manufacturing company, employing around 25 people at our factory in Littlehampton.

We’ve been around as Advanced Material for over 25 years (Company Reg: 03577067). Prior to this, our chairman and founder, Nigel Coombes, incorporated Silicone Extrusions Ltd in 1986, and this was based for many years at the same factory, until the owners went their separate ways.

We are a silicone manufacturing company on the South Coast of England.

Specifically, our address is:

Advanced Material Ltd,
Unit 17, Lineside Industrial Estate
Arndale Road, Littlehampton,
West Sussex, BN17 7HD
England

What3words: alien.quick.waddled

With over 30 years’ experience, Advanced Materials is a market leader in silicone rubber manufacture. Our incredibly skilled team is ready to provide the highest level of service and problem solving to any of your silicone rubber applications.

Benefit from:

• Quick lead times – to accelerate your time to market
• ISO 9001 accreditation – ensuring reliability throughout your product life cycle
• Product Development Assistance – helping make sure you choose the right product
• Supply chain excellence – we source the highest quality materials that will best suit your bespoke application

You can quickly and easily order smaller quantities of our products online at any time of the day or night. Search for and select exactly what you need, with our simple click-on images of extrusion designs, get an instant quote, then place your order.

Designs which don’t currently have an extrusion are still available. If you have a drawing, sample or need some technical help, just call 01903 713566 or email us at sales@amsilicones.co.uk and we’ll be glad to provide a silicone sealing solution for your application.

Similarly, if you require a very large order, just pick up the phone or send an email to receive the same speedy service.

We manufacture all our silicone rubber extrusions on site at our manufacturing facility in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

Yes we cut our extrusion dies, cutting jigs and joining tools in house, but for some mould tools and punching tools we use external companies.

We have invested in CAD, CAM technology which allows us to design and create bespoke rubber extrusion tooling quickly and precisely to suit our customer’s needs. Whether we need to modify a tool or create a new one from scratch, we can produce competitively priced, accurate and unique tooling to suit any requirement.

With over 8,000 extrusion tools to choose from, many extrusion requests are available without a tooling charge. This includes silicone rubber profiles, tubing and cord as well as rubber strip dies.

New silicone rubber profiles are added to our product line every day and we take pride in being able to create a product that will fit your application perfectly.

Silicone elastomers are suitable for use in a wide variety of applications and industries due to their stable, non-reactive properties and their resistance to extreme environments and temperatures. Our market leading rubber extrusions can be seen in a wide range of industries such as aerospace, construction, lighting, food & drink, rail & mass transit, pharmaceutical & medical, automotive sectors.

The Advanced Materials team has developed a closed cell platinum cured silicone food grade sponge principally for the food and drink and pharmaceutical industries.

It is able to withstand high temperatures and suitable for food contact in accordance with BFR, FDA and 2002/72/EC, making it ideal for use in food processing machinery.

To bond to silicone rubber, you need to use a silicone based adhesive.
Silicone sealant that you can get from most DIY shops is often adequate, but please make sure they are silicone based.

We also sell a silicone sealant here, which we usually have in stock at our factory. If you would like the data sheet or pricing contact our expert team sales@amsilicones.co.uk.

For some extrusions, we can apply an adhesive backing.

Using a cyanoacrylate-based adhesive will not bond your silicone rubber parts properly, in some cases it may look as though adhesion has occurred, only for it to later peel away. To bond to silicone rubber, you need to use a silicone-based adhesive.

Some of the extrusions we produce can be adhesive backed; the criteria for this are that the profile must be wider than it is tall and the tape must be on an external flat face. SAB cannot be applied to any profile that needs talc during its manufacturing process. Contact our expert team sales@amsilicones.co.uk to find out if the profile you’ve selected can come with SAB.

Yes, we make bespoke parts every day; please send an email over with the drawing of what you need to enquiries@amsilicones.co.uk.

Our GP, HS and PC ranges have a translucent base and so can be pigmented easily to most colours.

Our FR, HT, and FGS ranges have creamy white base materials so result in pale shades only.

Our Metal Powder range is offered in shades of blue.

Our grades with FDA compliance include the GP range, HS and PC, but for specific information ask at Quality@amsilicones.co.uk and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.

Send your design to our Technical Director, Villeater Gladman Villeater@amsilicones.co.uk who will be pleased to advise you as to whether we can produce what you need.

Most of our grades of silicone rubber will have a temperature range of -65ᵒC to 200ᵒC.

We do have a High Temperature grade suitable for up to 300ᵒC, and a Low Temperature grade for down to -100ᵒC.

Ask for a data sheet, or let us know the application temperature when you get in touch with us sales@amsilicones.co.uk.

Pneumatic rubber seals are an effective method of sealing between parts to create a seal that can also be disengaged. Compressed air can be used to inflate the seals and the pressure can be controlled to regulate the force the seal applies. The seal can expand to meet the sealing face and also retracts when not required to free the components.
We can use our in-house design capabilities to create an inflatable rubber seal that fits your exact requirements.

We have developed our own unique joining system for silicone rubber joined gaskets and seals. The vulcanisation technique enables us to join complex, as well as simple, extrusions into rings and mitered corners using the same material for the joint as the extrusion. Using this technique we can create:

• Oven door seals
• Autoclave door seals
• Train door seals
• Electrical enclosure seals
• Weather proofing seals

This gives a strong uniform component and an almost invisible join.

Quality and precision are the main focus in our manufacturing and we pride ourselves on providing a market-leading service for a host of industries. We constantly work to improve our quality control systems and currently operate to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO14001. (Copies of our certificates are available upon request and can be downloaded on our website).

The General Tolerances that we manufacture to are ISO3302 E1 for extruded silicone rubber profiles, ISO3302 M2 for mouldings and ISO3302 L2 for cut lengths.

Some exceptions apply for large or uneven profiles.

In some cases, we can hold tighter tolerances than E1, so please do ask. We can also apply negative only or positive only tolerances as needed. For specific details do get in contact with us enquiries@amsilicones.co.uk.

We have grades of silicone rubber that comply to flame retardant specifications:

• UL94-V0
• BS6853 Cat 1
• Aircraft FAR 25.853(a)
• Rail EN 45545 Part 2

We also have grades of silicone rubber that comply to some smoke opacity and smoke toxicity standards.

We have materials for food, drinking water and pharmaceutical industries that meet the following standards:

• USP CLASS VI
• FDA § 177.2600
• BfR XV Silicones regulations
• WRAS
• EC 1935/2004

The easiest way to proceed is for you to let our expert team know which standard or specification you need the material to meet by contacting us on Sales@amsilicones.co.uk.

Yes. If you need a specific declaration please request this via Quality@amsilicones.co.uk and we’ll be happy to help you with your request.

If you need a Certificate of Conformity with the batch number and cure date of your goods, we’d be happy to provide one - just ask when you get your quotation.

Advanced Materials Ltd is ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified. We were awarded the ISO 14001 accreditation in 2022, to add to our existing ISO9001 Quality Management System accreditation (which we’ve held for 15+ years).

ISO 14001 sets out the criteria for an Environmental Management System that a company or organisation can follow, to ensure that any environmental impact is being measured and improved.

We are committed to sustainable developments and thoroughly evidenced Quality Management Systems. Some of our sustainable practices we follow, as environmentally aware silicone manufacturers, include:

• Reducing energy consumption and emissions
• Environmentally friendly wastage and disposal
• Recycling
• Selecting products and suppliers with good environmental credentials

We are pleased to say that we are a UK silicone rubber manufacturer which recognises the vital role that women play in engineering and a business which helps to make up those numbers.

A large proportion of the senior roles at Advanced Materials are held by women and in turn, we have a fair few female faces on the factory floor. We appreciate that everyone is different and has their own valuable skill sets which can benefit our business, no matter their background, and we are committed to equality.

No, we manufacture to order. Once you place your order with us it will be scheduled into our manufacturing plan and you will be emailed an order acknowledgement with the planned despatch date.

Yes, if you are local to us, you are welcome to collect your goods, or if you want to send in your own courier to collect from us, that’s absolutely fine, too. In both cases, if you let us know at the time of placing your order, we’ll let you know when your consignment is ready, as well as the weight and dimensions.

Yes, for most shipping methods we use we can give you a tracking number. The Orders team can help you with this - get in touch with them via orders@amsilicones.co.uk.

Not ordinarily, no. As we manufacture to order, we don’t have parts in stock to send out a small piece as a sample.

However, if we’ve made the part recently we may have a ‘production sample’ (of about 1cm long). Contact our expert team via Sales@amsilicones.co.uk with details of the die number and they will let you know if we can supply a sample.

No. As we are setting up to manufacture the extrusion, often the set-up time is longer than the manufacturing time on short runs. Once set up it makes sense to continue to produce the full quantity, rather than set up again on a different day.

Advanced Materials specialises in manufacturing silicone rubber extrusions for industry applications and as such our customers are primarily other businesses. While we can supply individuals, the nature of our business includes setting up to manufacture for each run, meaning it is generally more cost effective for individuals to find a stockist of a suitable component, rather than paying for a complete manufacture.

Orders placed via our website can be for as little as 1 metre. For items such as rings, frames or mouldings, please contact our expert team via Sales@amsilicones.co.uk to discuss your requirements.

Our lead times vary with workload. For the most up-to-date information, contact our friendly sales team via Sales@amsilicones.co.uk.

Yes, if you are placing an order via email orders@amsilicones.co.uk then we can issue you a proforma invoice for you to pay by card or by bank transfer. If ordering extrusions online then you can pay via WorldPay.

Yes, we can issue your proforma invoice in euros - get in touch with the team at orders@amsilicones.co.uk to let us know.

When you first place your enquiry with the sales team at Sales@amsilicones.co.uk let them know that you’d like to pay in Euros and they will send your quotation in Euros too.

Yes, unless you already have a credit account with us, you will need to pay upfront, before manufacture begins.

If ordering extrusions online you can pay upfront via WorldPay.

Please send your remittance advices to the Accounts Team via Accounts@amsilicones.co.uk

You can get this from the Accounts Team via Accounts@amsilicones.co.uk - just pop them an email and they’ll get back to you.

Please email the Accounts Team on Accounts@amsilicones.co.uk with your query and they’ll get back to you as soon as possible.