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in Liquid Rubber & Plastic for Moldmaking & Casting

No. 23 • Spring 1998


Polytek^® Expands
Facility will total 52,000 square feet.

Just three years old, Polytek^®'s state-of-the-art facility in Easton, PA, is growing already. An addition of 22,000 square feet is already being added to Polytek®'s nearly new 30,000-square-foot facility, which was just occupied in 1995.




		A construction team erects the steel and block walls of Polytek^®'s 22,000-square-foot addition.

The addition, which nearly doubles the size of the facility, will include additional manufacturing space, a warehouse, office, and laboratory.
      "Since our move, sales have greatly exceeded our expectations. Quality space is a prerequisite to the growth we foresee into the next century," said Bob LeCompte, Polytek^®'s president.
      "With our strong emphasis on innovative new product development and   customer training through on-siteseminars, workshops, and demonstrations, and growing domestic and international sales, we expect to utilize the new space fully within a short time."
     "Polytek^® will continue to devote 5,000 square feet of the present facility to product testing, demonstrations, and seminars that provide our staff and customers with more actual hands-on experience than any other producer of similar products," said Bob. "When customers call Polytek^®, they can speak with an expert. This expansion will allow us to remain the leader in our field."

Foundries Benefit from Polygel^® Spray Technology

BY DAVE SALISBURY

     When Sierra Sculpture of Auburn, CA, received a commission to cast a bronze, life-size Triceratops statue for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, the moldmakers searched for a cost-effective, time-efficient method of casting the gigantic piece. They decided to create their mold with the latest in spraying technology. Sierra Sculpture's choice is an example of a growing trend among art foundries that create large and complex molds.
     Large sculpture is molded routinely in art foundries using a variety of flexible mold materials and methods. Smaller molds can be made using pourable rubbers, but as models get larger, brushing has historically been the only alternative. Pourable Polytek^® rubbers such as Poly 74-30, the patented line of Poly Sulfide products, or TinSil^® and PlatSil^® silicone mold rubbers can be thickened with Cab-O-Sil^® for brushable application by hand.
     There are inherent advantages to this brushing technique. For example, any level of thixotropy/thickening can be attained—from a very runny, thin face coat to a pasty final coat. Also, any pourable rubber you have can be used for either pouring or brushing, depending on the job.

Expert moldmakers Patrick Hastings and Christina Bria spray up a Polygel^® mold for a Triceratops bronze for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum with a VS-3000 spray unit.

However, there are certain disadvantages to brushing. Many small mixes often need to be prepared to complete even one coat of rubber. Rubber can be wasted if all the rubber mixed with Cab-O-Sil^® is not removed from mixing containers and applied to the model (after many small hand mixes, this amount can add up). Also, each coat of rubber must gel for about 60 to 90 minutes before subsequent layers can be applied.

     Spraying now exists as a cost-effective alternative to brushing large blanket molds. Polygel^® Spray 50 is a patented liquid mold rubber that can be applied with equipment designed to meter-mix and spray a 1:1 (by-volume) liquid. One such low-cost spray system is built by Spray-Tech (the Model VS-3000 for $3,500).
     Low-cost equipment can be used since both the part A and B components of Polygel^® are low viscosity liquids that do not thicken until several seconds after mixing. The difficulty and high cost associated with spraying extremely thick liquids or pastes no longer is a concern when using Polygel^®.
     Foundries like Sierra Sculpture have found Polygel^® Spray 50 to be ideal for larger-scale projects such as the Triceratops statue. Any other form of application would be too time-consuming and costly. The portability of the VS-3000 unit also makes it suitable for manipulating around very large models where it may even need to be placed on scaffolding. Sierra Sculpture has used Polygel^® Spray 50 for numerous molds designed for use in the lost wax process for the development of bronze artwork.
     Please contact Polytek^® for more information on this technique or any of the patented Polygel^® mold rubber products.




Silicone Prices Reduced High performance now comes at greater value. Silicone mold rubbers have been, and still are, the most expensive flexible mold materials available, but in certain applications there is no better choice. Polytek^® has reduced silicone pricing across the board, so we can assure our customers they will receive the highest performance at the most economical and competitive prices. All TinSil^® and PlatSil^® products are available at the best prices ever. Call for details.



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