Custom Molded Polyurethane

Meridian Laboratory delivers custom molded polyurethane to your exact shape and size, delivering industry-leading tolerances and precision with every part we make!

Custom Molded Polyurethane Bearings are offered in a wide variety of standard and custom bearing sizes. Custom Molded Polyurethane Bearings are ideal for higher speed and/or higher load applications. Meridian Laboratory has the ability to adhere and mold directly to the bearing race, effectively and without tear off.

Our standard offerings of Custom Molded Polyurethane Bearings feature name-brand, high-quality bearings that match the precision and quality of our molded polyurethane. However, we can mold Custom Molded Polyurethane Bearings to bearings of all types and price points to meet the performance and budget requirements for your application.

Custom Molded Polyurethane Bushings are offered in a wide variety of standard and custom bushing sizes and materials. Generally, Custom Molded Polyurethane Bushings are ideal for lighter-duty applications with low to moderate speeds. Meridian Laboratory has the ability to adhere and mold directly to the idler bushing, effectively and without tear off. Many manufacturers struggle to deliver the same level of bond strength to bushings as Meridian Laboratory is capable of delivering.

Our standard bushing material is an oil-impregnated bronze; however, we offer the ability to mold Custom Molded Polyurethane Bushings onto any type of bushing materials, including plastics and 3D printed bushings.

Meridian Laboratory molds ML6 polyurethane directly to a wide variety of metals, including but not limited to: aluminum, steel, stainless steel, titanium, brass, copper, and nickel. The bond strength between ML6 polyurethane and the metal core material is extremely strong and resists tear-off and delamination.

Meridian Laboratory molds ML6 polyurethane directly to a wide variety of plastics, including but not limited to: Nylon, polycarbonate, PEEK, acetal, and ABS. Meridian Laboratory can mold efficiently to a variety of 3D printed plastics as well. The bond strength between ML6 polyurethane and the plastic core material is extremely strong and resists tear-off and delamination.

Meridian Laboratory can mold Custom Molded Polyurethane Tires without any type of core at all. This can reduce the cost and mass of the final product. Meridian Laboratory can tune the dimensions to your exact requirements to ensure best product performance. A coreless design is typically used when the “tire” is directly mounted to the shaft or if they are used as a consumable and replaced on the roller cores/hubs once worn, without the need for over molding.

As an additional value-add, Meridian Laboratory offers the ability to lasermark parts with customer names, part numbers, QR codes, and other unique identification features. We also have the ability to color code to specific durometers for easy identification between similar parts.

Our standard colors for custom molded polyurethane include yellow, blue, orange, black, red, white, green, clear, and purple. For our standard molded polyurethane offerings, these colors are correlated to a specific durometer for simple identification of different parts. However, Meridian Laboratory also offers the ability to deliver any custom polyurethane colors to your specific preference in all volumes.

For food sensitive applications, Meridian Laboratory can provide FDA-Compliant custom molded polyurethane. We offer FDA Dry-approved formulations for applications that involve direct contact with dry foods or that will be in the vicinity of the product, such as its packaging. We also offer more stringent FDA Wet-approved formulas for applications that are in direct contact with wet/fatty foods or that will be exposed to heavy moisture and washdown. In addition to the FDA approved polyurethane formulas, we can also make the other components that require overmolding using stainless steel components, FDA approved bearings, etc. in order to deliver complete FDA compliant parts.

The hardness of any soft material such as rubber, plastic, polyurethane, or non-metallic material is measured in durometer, which is similar to how metals are measured on the Rockwell scale. There are various scales used to measure the durometer to encompass the wide range of hardness that these materials come in.

The Shore A hardness scale is the most commonly used scale in production and manufacturing applications due to its wide range and versatility of uses within the scale. The Shore A scale can range from parts that are flexible and soft in nature (0-40A), to semi-flexible and medium-hard (50-80A), to hard and rigid (90-100A). Meridian Laboratory operates primarily in the Shore A scale and offers 40A, 55A, 70A, 80A, 90A in durometer choices, but is not limited to these durometers.

The hardest scale in plastic, rubber, and polyurethane measurement is Shore D. Shore D can most commonly be associated with hard rubbers and plastics. Meridian Laboratory offers precision molded polyurethane parts in the Shore D scale up to 75D, being very hard and rigid.

Anti-static custom molded polyurethane parts are offered to reduce the amount of static build-up over time.

Unlike many other standard and custom molded polyurethane manufacturers, Meridian Laboratory is the proprietary developer of our specially blended ML6 polyurethane. ML6 polyurethane is specifically designed for use in industrial, manufacturing, and other environments where precision, durability, and quality are critical. Meridian Laboratory utilizes the highest quality raw materials to ensure that the best end products are produced. We can fine tune our exclusive recipes of ML6 polyurethane to meet the exact needs for your application.

For wet, washdown, or high moisture environments where custom bonded polyurethane components are used, Meridian Laboratory offers unique polyurethane formulas to ensure the consistency and performance of the polyurethane is maintained.

Meridian Laboratory offers custom molded polyurethane parts with dual durometers. Drive belts and wheels would be a good example where a more rigid durometer is used on the inner diameter for mounting, and a softer durometer is used on the outside diameter to add friction to drive materials. The bond strength between the two durometers remains strong and without any compromise.

The standard finish of custom molded urethane solutions features a smooth, blemish-free, and high-grip surface on all molded portions of the part. This surface finish maximizes friction / grip while minimizing wear. Contrary to conventional belief, this finish provides the maximum amount of traction – similar to the way a racing slick provides the maximum traction with the asphalt surface it comes in contact with.

A matte surface finish can be specified for parts where friction / grip is not desired, or for applications with light materials like plastic films, which could potentially stick to a tacky surface. A matte finish will still provide the friction drive benefits which ML6 polyurethane is known for, while allowing light parts to be released from the contact surface.