DIY rubber

[Spartan-727]

Hello all, was reading through the blademakers thread and realized there is not an equivalent for rubber. This is no doubt because rubber engineering is more difficult to get into.

Has anyone ever tried to make their own rubber, how did it go, and what was your process?

Asking for myself who has some time on my hands.

 

[Wakkibatty]

@haggisv of OOAK fame wrote an article on this subject quite a while ago-- link is below:

https://oneofakindtrading.com.au/gluing_topsheet_to_sponge.htm

It's an older article so I honestly don't know if things have changed with newer rubbers, but Haggis would be the person to ask as the man really knows his stuff 🙂🙂 He's on the TTD boards quite regularly so it may be worth reaching out to him either here or over at the OOAK forums for some further advice.

While I've never tried making a rubber myself, I have however seriously investigated having rubbers manufactured / mass produced previously by third parties, as well as getting them ITTF approved. (...basically it's only worth doing once your sales volumes get over a certain point, and I'm not quite there yet frankly 😂😂)

I might look at it again one day if my volumes reach a sufficient level. That said, TT rubbers are an over-crowded marketplace already frankly so the numbers would need to be really compelling to justify it.

 

[thisisit]

assembling sandwich rubber used to be a thing back when ox pips was considered normal rubber(this is where ox=orthodox comes from).
but to actually make foam rubber(sponge) and rubber topsheets yourself, just for a proof of concept you'll need to dish out at least $250k for tooling. that is more expensive than even bty rubbers!!

 

[Spartan-727]

@haggisv of OOAK fame wrote an article on this subject quite a while ago-- link is below:

https://oneofakindtrading.com.au/gluing_topsheet_to_sponge.htm

It's an older article so I honestly don't know if things have changed with newer rubbers, but Haggis would be the person to ask as the man really knows his stuff 🙂🙂 He's on the TTD boards quite regularly so it may be worth reaching out to him either here or over at the OOAK forums for some further advice.

While I've never tried making a rubber myself, I have however seriously investigated having rubbers manufactured / mass produced previously by third parties, as well as getting them ITTF approved. (...basically it's only worth doing once your sales volumes get over a certain point, and I'm not quite there yet frankly 😂😂)

I might look at it again one day if my volumes reach a sufficient level. That said, TT rubbers are an over-crowded marketplace already frankly so the numbers would need to be really compelling to justify it.

This was very informative. I've never went through with sandwiching a sponge and topsheet since I play inverted. I'll definitely give it a try now though. Would love to see a dignics sponge with a slower topsheet.

Regarding getting rubbers manufactured, that sounds very interesting. Is there any links you can provide to that? While most likely not financially feasible it'd still be a good read at the least.

 

[Spartan-727]

assembling sandwich rubber used to be a thing back when ox pips was considered normal rubber(this is where ox=orthodox comes from).
but to actually make foam rubber(sponge) and rubber topsheets yourself, just for a proof of concept you'll need to dish out at least $250k for tooling. that is more expensive than even bty rubbers!!

Wow that is steep! I wonder where all the money goes? Probably the heating process?

 

[igorponger]

RUSSIANS ONLY CAN DO A SUCH.

Making space rocket is nothing to making rubber vulcanizates. It did take ©Tamasu Butterfly five years to accomplish rubber formula of the Dignics.
Yes, you can customize any rubber with a proper booster. Good luck.

A Russian native did succeeded in making rubber products by establishing a small industrial shop inside a big tire plant. ITTF approved.

 

[Wakkibatty]

This was very informative. I've never went through with sandwiching a sponge and topsheet since I play inverted. I'll definitely give it a try now though. Would love to see a dignics sponge with a slower topsheet.

Regarding getting rubbers manufactured, that sounds very interesting. Is there any links you can provide to that? While most likely not financially feasible it'd still be a good read at the least.

Back when I was considering it, I made an approach to one of the Chinese-based rubber manufacturers (though equally I suppose I could also have approached ESN... I just assumed Chinese manufacturers would be cheaper in the kind of volumes I was initially considering.)

For commercial reasons, I can't/won't share details of the rubbers we were developing up sorry (we may well go ahead with our earlier plan later on -- I was only being halfway flippant there).

I can tell you however that a fair number of Chinese manufacturers offer OEM rubbers for sale if the order is large enough, so it's not that hard to make an approach and ask about their minimum order quantities for re-branded factory rubbers. With many of their low to mid end rubber lines, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to them hugely if it's your logo or theirs on the rubbers they're making -- the production cost per rubber to them is pretty much identical either way, as is the profit margin they make on any particular SKU, especially if it's a rubbers that's no longer in the ITTF LARC list.

Getting a rubber ITTF approved is a massively expensive exercise, as there's thousands of dollars in application fees to get each individual SKU initially approved, and thousands more payable each year in licensing fees to keep it on the LARC list. This means that only their most profitable / best selling / best performing rubbers tend to have their registration renewed every year. Any of those less-profitable rubbers are therefore frequently retired. Getting a batch of these retired rubbers made up with your logo on them is quite simple -- they just can't put the ITTF logo on it however as the registration has lapsed. This means you have to get new top-sheet molds made up, which the factory can do for you for a few hundred dollars or so.

 

[Spartan-727]

Back when I was considering it, I made an approach to one of the Chinese-based rubber manufacturers (though equally I suppose I could also have approached ESN... I just assumed Chinese manufacturers would be cheaper in the kind of volumes I was initially considering.)

For commercial reasons, I can't/won't share details of the rubbers we were developing up sorry (we may well go ahead with our earlier plan later on -- I was only being halfway flippant there).

I can tell you however that a fair number of Chinese manufacturers offer OEM rubbers for sale if the order is large enough, so it's not that hard to make an approach and ask about their minimum order quantities for re-branded factory rubbers. With many of their low to mid end rubber lines, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to them hugely if it's your logo or theirs on the rubbers they're making -- the production cost per rubber to them is pretty much identical either way, as is the profit margin they make on any particular SKU, especially if it's a rubbers that's no longer in the ITTF LARC list.

Getting a rubber ITTF approved is a massively expensive exercise, as there's thousands of dollars in application fees to get each individual SKU initially approved, and thousands more payable each year in licensing fees to keep it on the LARC list. This means that only their most profitable / best selling / best performing rubbers tend to have their registration renewed every year. Any of those less-profitable rubbers are therefore frequently retired. Getting a batch of these retired rubbers made up with your logo on them is quite simple -- they just can't put the ITTF logo on it however as the registration has lapsed. This means you have to get new top-sheet molds made up, which the factory can do for you for a few hundred dollars or so.

Perfectly reasonable. Thanks for all the info you gave me. It'll guide me down a way to keep me interested for a while. Best of luck to you!

 

[igorponger]

Just persuade Elon Musk to lend his support and money for the project. You shall get a product of complete excellence in the end, no two ways about this.