The Source Code

Quality Control: Sheet Rubber

  

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Souring and importing sheet rubber goods can be a risky proposition. There’s no two ways around that. And no matter how long you’ve been purchasing offshore and how many times you think you’ve seen it all. I promise you a problem will arise that your wildest imagination couldn’t create.  

However the good news is we’re not talking about unforeseen problems we’re talking about the most common quality mistakes made by offshore rubber suppliers. We have imported thousands of pounds of sheet rubber material over the years and here’s our list of top problems to watch your supplier on.

1. Hardness Marching – Typically a result of temperature and the product being over or under cured. The hardness of the rubber will change if the correct formulations are not used.
2. Migration – Where too much oil is used in the rubber compounding process. The oil will then creep to the finished surface creating an oily look and sometimes affects the performance of the rubber. 
3. Surface Contamination – Usually dirty substances (grease, mud, dirt, etc) found on the material attributed to messy working environments and careless workers.
4. Blistering/Bubbling material – If the vulcanization process is not done properly excess moisture can mix with the rubber causing the material to blister or bubble while curing. 
5. Smell – Because process aid oils are used during the rubber compounding process, some will create a very potent smelling rubber product.
6. Thickness Tolerance – If proper tension is not maintained throughout the manufacturing process a wavy product maybe the end result.
7. Packing – Often overlooked but critically important. Make sure your supplier straps the rolls of rubber together, rolls are placed on pallets for easy unloading, cores properly constructed and correctly sized for your warehouse.
8. Color of Rubber – For example, your rubber may show up the wrong shade of red. I know this doesn’t sound significant but when you try and sell the material to people who’ve been buying a certain shade for multiple years, trust me they’ll notice.

So how do you avoid these common errors? First align with a supplier that is best fit for you and your product needs. Whatever you do don’t pick a supplier based solely on price, that’s a sure fire why to not solve any of the issues listed above. Next, work with your supplier to create a list of Vital Factors that are important to you and your product. It’s important to describe each element in detail, don’t leave anything up to choice or assumption. Lastly have your supplier make a sample, production sample, trial order then finally once you’ve confirmed they can consistently manufacture your product, place a full container order. Also if you’re the control type you can never be too careful by sending an employee or hiring a quality control firm to perform in production quality checks.    

That’s it for today. Stay tuned for the next weeks post.

(For more than 10 years, GCP Industrial Products has successfully offered its customers a unique sourcing process that allows them to save money, streamline their supply chain and grow with new products. Our plans are to continue to grow based upon mutually beneficial relationships and the quality of our products and services to our ever growing customer base. To contact us please click here or phone 1-888-893-5427. Thank you.)