Appliance Sealing Solutions
Optimizing material compounds to meet and exceed customer performance
Developing world-class designs for customers' unique applications
A leading authority in testing / advanced analytics
World-class operations / advantaged global footprint
Cooper Standard Industrial & Specialty Group (ISG) can work with you to design or redesign a sealing solution for optimum performance in any appliance application.
Cooper Standard ISG’s unique mix of world-class product development, engineering and materials expertise—as well as in-house testing and validation capabilities—can help appliance OEMs build in robust sealing performance in any new product. We also provide expertise in engineering capabilities, including computerized finite element analysis designed to help create the optimum sealing solution to help meet the demands of any appliance application. Cooper Standard ISG can also work with you to create a new seal to decisively solve performance or warranty issues that may be plaguing an existing product.
In addition, Cooper Standard ISG can help you specify high-performing materials to replace an incumbent material which may be impacted by emerging regulatory issues. Our engineering teams can integrate seamlessly with your in-house staff for synergistic and highly effective partnerships—whether project-focused or for greater success long term.
Sealing Design Guide
Download our Sealing Design Guide for an in-depth resource to help you optimize part production and performance.
ISG Overview
Download our Cooper Standard ISG Overview to learn more about our business philosophy as well as material science, design and manufacturing capabilities.
FEA is a powerful software tool that Cooper Standard ISG experts use to help optimize seal designs. Design projects with partners across a number of industries suggest that FEA could reduce optimum development cycles and testing, significantly slashing development time and costs, and allowing faster speed to market with potentially more effective, more robustly performing products.
FEA is also the driver for a Cooper Standard innovation that is revolutionizing seal installation in many facilities. Crimp on Flange (COF) technology often doubles the pull-off force of current seals, as well as delivers revolutionary improvements in the speed and ergonomics of assembly, reducing vibration and percussive force experienced by the operator.
- Appliance Door Seals
- Seals & gaskets
- Anti-microbial seals
- Temperature resistant seals
- Seal boots
- Grommets
- Bellows
- Isolators
- Connectors
- Plugs
- Welded Corners
- Convoluted drain tubes
Appliance manufacturers often need to ensure that their products not only meet stringent performance criteria but also meet the rigorous demands of various regulatory bodies, depending on customer requirements and application needs. Cooper Standard ISG has your back, offering customers a wide range of materials, application expertise and in-house testing and validation tools. Our support can help you effectively meet the responsibilities imposed by organizations including:
UL157
Cooper Standard ISG delivers the expertise to help ensure that seals and gaskets meet UL 157 requirements by effectively preventing the transference of liquid, gas or vapor, as well as ensure property retention through heat aging, fluid immersion and other environmental testing protocols. This certification also includes UL 50, UL 50E for electrical enclosures and UL 508 for industrial control equipment.
FDA-TITLE 21
For FDA-regulated products, such as refrigerators, ice makers and other appliances with components that could potentially contact food, Cooper Standard ISG’s materials expertise allows us to certify that the composition of all seals, gaskets and other components comply with relevant aspects of Title 21.
NSF-ANSI 51 AND NSF/ANSI 61
Cooper Standard ISG can help ensure that your sealing materials used in food handling equipment fully meet public health and sanitation requirements, NSF/ANSI 51 and NSF/ANSI 61 for end-use applications.
ASTM D-1056 AND ASTM D-2000
Many appliance manufacturers strive to meet global testing standards to ensure the highest quality products and maximum customer satisfaction. Cooper Standard ISG is an expert in such relevant protocols as ASTM D-1056 and ASTM D-2000.
Whether designing and developing a new product or working to improve the sealing capabilities in an existing one, our experts can help you identify a high performing alternative to an incumbent material. Cooper Standard ISG engineers can provide unmatched materials knowledge and compounding expertise. No matter what the challenge, our engineers can help custom develop a component to meet it. The high performance rubber and thermoplastic materials in our portfolio include:
EPDM offers great compression performance, is compliance friendly and has a favorable cost profile—no wonder it’s a go-to material for many appliance applications. Cooper Standard ISG is an expert in standard and specialty EPDM including sponge and colorized products.
Silicone delivers outstanding heat resistance in dryers and other high temperature appliance applications, and offers a favorable FDA/NSF compliance record. Cooper Standard ISG is an expert compounder utilizing both dense and sponge silicone formulations.
A proprietary Cooper Standard innovation, Fortrex™ is a lightweight elastomer with a unique property set, demonstrating excellent compression, high weatherability and aesthetic performance—and it’s environmentally-friendly as well.
PVC offers an outstanding array of properties, and ISG PVC processing expertise—spanning grades from rubbery soft to semi-rigid to rigid—can help appliance manufacturers achieve high-performance at even the most sensitive budget levels.
Educate yourself about various plastic polymers and design considerations.
Cooper Standard ISG is not just a parts supplier, we are a value added partner that can work with you to identify cost and labor savings opportunities on each individual appliance project. We deliver the engineering expertise and specialized equipment to strategically prepare parts that optimize assembly operations in your plant, bringing to bear such services as:
Cooper Standard ISG can deliver plastic, silicone and rubber seals with peel-off, pressure-sensitive adhesive strips already applied to seals and gaskets. With these ready-to-assemble parts, many appliance manufacturers are benefitting from a more efficient, faster, streamlined workflow in their plant.
Cooper Standard ISG can not only cut your extrusions to the exact lengths needed, accurate to the tightest tolerances, but can also expertly notch, drill or angle cut to accommodate latches, pins or other features, and ship to fit the appliance form exactly, with no need for additional intervention on site.
Cooper Standard ISG can cure highly effective coatings right to the seal, providing reduced surface friction for improved ease of assembly, as well as imparting properties such as long term abrasion resistance to dynamic seals for greatly increased open/close cycles.
Identification marks on products can be crucial to manufacturing efficiency and quality. From an intricate logo to customer part numbers, we can provide identification markings that best fit your requirements.
Cooper Standard ISG can bring a wide range of specialized capabilities to bear on the design and development of optimum seal and gasket solutions for appliance manufacturers. These featured solutions can help you optimize performance and reduce cost, and can include:
Cooper Standard ISG’s proprietary iDea® Seals technology creates a rigid plastic base that will smoothly slide into an appliance door channel, eliminating the need for secondary mechanical fastening and reducing assembly time and costs.
Rubber to metal bonded seals can provide appliances with a host of performance advantages including vibration damping, improved UV resistance, longer component life, superior insulation and more. Cooper Standard ISG is an expert in optimizing process parameters and maintaining tight tolerances to achieve the highest quality results.
For large and/or intricate appliance seal and gasket profiles, Cooper Standard ISG offers extensive expertise in rubber and plastic compression molding, transfer molding, injection molding and more.
Cooper Standard ISG’s high-performance push-on trim seals are easy to install—simply push into place. They are long lasting and look great in any appliance application.
Cooper Standard ISG proprietary QuickEdge™ trims provide a fast, easy way to install a decorative or protective edge on any appliance. Just push it down on the exposed edge to engage tremendous permanent gripping power.
Cooper Standard ISG’s world-class extrusion expertise includes not only the manufacture of seals using individual thermoplastics, thermosets, EPDM and silicones, but also the ability to extrude multiple materials into a single part to gain important properties. Typical are dual-durometer parts with both rigid and flexible areas for optimum performance.