Gaskets

Stephenson & Lawyer produces a wide variety of custom gaskets from both open and closed cell foams.

Open cell foam can be used as a low-pressure gasket by compressing its thickness to seal out air, dust or light.

Closed cell materials, such as crosslinked polyethylene, PVC or rubber are used most often when the application requires the sealing of a liquid or a high-pressure application.

Most of the gaskets we produce are die cut in our press department. The gaskets can be supplied with or with out a pressure sensitive adhesive backing.

Filters

Stephenson & Lawyer produces many custom prefilters and final filters from reticulated foam that are used for air filtration. We stock a wide range of pore sizes so a custom filter can be designed for your specific application. With our fabrication capabilities the design possibilities are almost limitless.

One reason to use foam as a prefilter is to extend the life of a more expensive pleated paper filter. The foam filter will filter out the larger particles preventing them from face loading the paper element. Another advantage of the foam is that it is washable and reusable.

Felted reticulated foam elements offer additional design options for filtering out smaller particle sizes. For example, they can be designed with the capability to separate particles as small as platelets from plasma.

Sound Absorption

Many of our open cell foams can be used in acoustical applications. What type of foam is used depends on the environment or conditions it will be exposed to, such as temperature, moisture or open flame.

For example, we had a customer that was designing an acoustical enclosure around a generator. They were looking for a light weight, fire retardant foam with a wipable surface. They chose to use Melamine foam with a reinforced aluminum foil on one surface. The foil facing gave them the wipable surface they were looking for and protected the surface of the foam from worker tools when they serviced the generator.

When space is an issue many of the non-reticulated foams can be felted or densified to provide great sound absorption in a thinner space. We can combine multiple materials to achieve the best option for the end user.

Packaging

Both open and closed cell foams are used in packaging applications. Depending on the weight of the product, the fragility and the environment will determine whether open or closed cell foam is used. With our fabrication capabilities the design possibilities are almost limitless.

Wicking & Metering Devices

Compressed reticulated foam (felt) transports fluids from a reservoir to an application surface. The consistent and precise cell structure helps provide excellent, controllable capillary action.

Because of these features, our products are found in applications as varied as clean room wipes, industrial cleaning sponges, as well as the media to wick oil from a reservoir to bearings in electric motors, the media to transport ink in postage machines and in ink cartridges for thermal ink jet printers.

Scrubbers

Stephenson & Lawyer fabricates a wide variety of scrubbing and sponge/absorbing media from our extensive raw material inventory. We have the ability to fabricate Melamine scrubbers and a wide range of pore sizes of reticulated polyurethanes with varying degrees of abrasiveness and combine these with many other types of media.

Microphone Windscreens

Reticulated/filter foams are used in microphone windscreen applications because they have been proven virtually acoustically transparent; effectively invisible to sound waves in audible frequencies.

With our fabricating capabilities we are able to produce unique and custom shaped windscreens. Multiple porosities can be combined to custom tune the windscreen.

Anti-Rattle & Vibration Damping

Both open and closed cell foams or a combination of materials are used in these applications. Because of our fabrication abilities, custom or complex shapes can be designed for each unique application.

One simple example of an anti-rattle application, we are heat-sealing open cell polyurethane into tubes of various lengths that are slid over a cable to prevent it from rattling against a metal or hard plastic surface.

Insulation

Both open and closed cell materials are used in insulation applications depending on the environment they will be used in. We also have polyimide and Melamine foams that can be used in high temperature application where flammability is a concern.

In one application an oven manufacturer wanted to insulate some duct work on a self cleaning oven. We were able to use polyimide foam with a foil facing to keep the surface temperature at a level that would not burn the end user.

Medical

Stephenson & Lawyer have created numerous medical applications like needle counters, test tube floats, X-ray positioning pads, and foam parts used in wound care dressings. We've also expanded our capabilities by adding a controlled packaging room.

Medical applications »