Jacob Mancini, a Product & Mold Design Engineer for The Rubber Group (TRG), recently completed Seals Product Design and Manufacturing training from the Association for Rubber Products Manufacturers (ARPM). This one-week intensive course covered rubber science, product seal design for static and dynamic sealing, and producibility. Mancini described the class as “phenomenal.”
Seal Design for Real-World Applications
As a Product & Mold Design Engineer, Mancini works at Cooper Products Inc., which TRG acquired last December. His goals for the ARPM training included a deeper understanding of the fundamental aspects of seal design, including which parameters to consider and which test methods to use. Cooper Products makes custom bearing seals and precision custom-molded products.
During the training, Mancini learned how to evaluate and determine critical aspects of seal design, including material evaluation, seal design and performance testing, and seal processability. “ARPM did a tremendous job in the production of this course,” he said. “Each instructor was an expert,” he added, and “the material covered was substantive and directly applicable to real world applications.”
More Benefits for TRG Customers
By learning more about seal design and manufacturing, Mancini says he can better assist TRG customers during design reviews and design for manufacturability (DFM) analysis. A deeper understanding of material compounding, rubber flow analysis, and mold analysis also mean that TRG can produce a more accurate and robust manufacturing process for customers. “This will ultimately increase part quality and decrease manufacturing vulnerability,” he added.
ARPM’s Seals Product Design and Manufacturing course was led by Joe Walker, Robert Keller, Greg Vassmer, and Van Walworth. Mancini says “It would have easily taken me a decade of more to learn some of the things” that the instructors taught him in a week. The Product & Mold Design Engineer thanked TRG for the opportunity to learn and said that “I would highly encourage anyone who is curious about the rubber industry to attend.
About TRG and ARPM
The Rubber Group makes standard and custom molded rubber products for medical devices, the oil and gas industry, cosmetics and personal care, house and home, sporting goods, footwear, the transportation industry, and more. TRG is a member of the ARPM, an organization that’s dedicated to serving the rubber industry across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.