Industries
Our rubber bonding and heat protection fabrics are designed for a wide range of industries
Whether it is aerospace or defence industries, or the manufacture of diaphragms or belting, Compotex technology spans a wide range of industries.
Our fabrics for rubber reinforcement span many manufacturing and engineering sectors.
However, decades of expertise and know-how make us market leaders in some specialist niche areas. Some examples of these are in RFL dipped fabrics and peroxide rubber bonding.
Our expertise with vermiculite, silica, graphite and weavelocking helps our customers get the right heat protection product that they need. This expertise means we immediately focus on the critical specifications needed by our customers.
Diaphragms
Compotex is a world leader in the fabrics for diaphragms. These fabrics combine excellent flexibility in the mould with excellent adhesion to the rubber compound.
The diaphragm industry makes parts of very different sizes, strengths and flexibility. We offer a range of fabrics together with a range of chemical treatments for the wide range of rubber compounds used.
One of the problems that our customers have is the range of products that they need and the availability of smaller quantities of fabrics for specific jobs. Compotex has no minimum order for stock fabrics. By holding stocks of the loomstate fabrics we can offer a fast service to our customers.
All our products are water based and solvent free.
Aerospace
The exacting requirements of aerospace are our standard for Compotex dipped fabric for peroxide cured silicone rubber. We have been one of the first companies worldwide to develop manufacturing processes for water based silicone priming. This technology is especially used for sealing applications.
Silicone rubber is the preferred rubber for many aerospace applications because of its high temperature performance and its flexibility. Reinforcing fabrics can be polyester where the parts are not exposed to high temperatures, or glass, silica or ceramic fabrics for high temperature applications. In these high temperature applications the fabric stays in place even when the silicone rubber is degraded. The priming chemistry is a vital part of this technical performance.
We offer two bonding technologies for these parts. The Compotex PS system and priming using the Momentive A174 NT. Each has their advantages, and we work confidentially with aerospace companies to agree the best specification or to develop new specifications.
Belting
Whether it is EP and EE belting, drive belts, narrow fabrics or other specialist belting, Compotex has the expertise in this industry.
There are many large vertical companies who specialise in the high volume sectors. We specialise in the niche markets. This means that we specialise in unusual fabrics and in the unusual rubber compounds.
Compotex is well placed to respond to new product enquiries. Project development progresses at speed thanks to our laboratory and production development capability. Equally important is the way we work with different companies on a confidential basis.
The success of this approach is the trust we build with our customers. We never compete with our customers and recognise our small but important part of their complex supply chain.
Heat Protection
Heat and fire protection fabrics provide vital safety requirements in the design and maintenance of residential, business and industrial buildings. Every project or part is different. Compotex’s experience along with our versatile and flexible manufacturing means we can always find the optimum solution to your application.
Glass fabrics on their own provide heat protection up to 550˚C. Weavelocking these fabrics to the optimum stiffness and handle means that our customers can easily process and work with the fabric to make their parts.
For a higher temperature rating of 700˚C, silica dipped fabrics are commonly used in static construction applications. They can provide a fire break that holds the spread of fire for a given period.
When it comes to maintenance, our vermiculite fabric is ideal for protecting equipment and people from welding metal and sparks.
Marine
In the two areas of rubber reinforced parts and heat protection, Compotex offers an extensive range of fabrics for marine applications.
Nitrile and neoprene rubbers are widely used for strong, dynamic and flexible parts that are resistant to sea water and oils. For these high performance marine applications, para-aramid and vectran fabrics are often used in addition to nylon fabrics. Vectran gives even better abrasion resistance which can be important for some extreme marine environments. Our RFL technology is developed for vectran and aramids, giving our customers the opportunity to improve the specifications of their products.
Heat protection and fire resistance is important in marine environments. Our vermiculite, silica and graphite dipped glass and silica fabrics provide high temperature protection. For rubber products, aramid and vectran fabrics are already fire retardant, and we can add FR characteristics to the RFL dips to further improve the fire performance of nylon fabrics.
EPDM Industries
EPDM rubber reinforced with fabric is a growing market. This is particularly true for peroxide EPDM which has some water approvals that sulphur curing rubbers do not.
With a full range of water based treated fabrics, Compotex offers high adhesion to EPDM rubber without using solvents.
The great difficulty for our customers is to find the right fabrics and treatments for EPDM. Too often the industry offers them fabrics that are meant for NR or CR rubber. In most cases this leads to poor adhesion or the need for a solvent coat before calendering with EPDM.
Compotex offers fabrics specifically designed and manufactured for EPDM parts. We launched these products at Techtextil 2024. Please get in touch.