R.D. Abbott expands technical services

CERRITOS, Calif.—R.D. Abbott Co. Inc. has more than doubled the size of its testing laboratories in Cerritos.

The firm said in a news release that this past fall equipment enhancements included an OOC internal mixer, a 40-inch compounding mill for scale-up work as well as an advanced rheometer, tensometer, dispergrader and an integrated lab management system from Alpha Technologies.

In 2015, the firm also added design and development laboratory services to their ISO 9001:2008 accreditation and became members of the NACD Responsible Distribution environmental, health and safety program.

R.D. Abbott also collaborated with a number of firms to produce innovations in 2015, including:

• Fully characterizing 14 grades of Dow Corning's Xiameter RBL-2004 and Xiameter RBL-9200 series of liquid silicone rubber using a suite of chemorheology measurements;

• Designing silicone formulations with a 3M fused silica filler that maintains physical properties and addresses OSHA's 2016 final ruling regarding silicosis hazards of crystalline silica;

• Developing an anti-static additive for Dow Corning LSR and high consistency silicone rubber products that helps finished silicone rubber articles stay clean and free of surface contamination;

• Studying Cancarb's Thermax N990 Thermal Carbon Black in an EPDM dense body seal compound to reduce the electrical conductivity;

• Developing two grades of TSE's MillaMed Class VI medical-grade millable urethane compounds

• Lightweighting Dow Corning silicones to a specific gravity of less than 1.0 that meets the specifications for typical aerospace, automotive and transportation uses, while still maintaining the material's high strength and dynamic mechanical properties; and

• Optimizing bonding platinum cure or peroxide cure LSR, fluorosilicone and high consistency silicone rubber using Lord's in-mold bolding technologies to thermoplastics, resulting in rubber tearing bonds.

R.D. Abbott is a distributor solely focused on elastomer technology, providing premium polymers, technical support and customer service to fabricators, original equipment manufacturers, design firms, contract manufacturers and tool makers.