Whether design engineers are trying to ensure that their products pass stringent product testing to prove out performance properties, or are working to stay on the right side of domestic or international regulations, Cooper Standard ISG has the expertise to help you fully meet or exceed every expectation of the marketplace.
With our own testing facilities, highly trained materials engineers and multi-industry experience, Cooper Standard ISG is known for going the extra mile to understand each standard or regulation and how it impacts the properties and compatibility of the materials—as well as the ultimate component it produces—from a real-world performance perspective, and helping every customer achieve the optimum overall result. In fact, we have relationships with fellow materials engineers at many certifying bodies and often discuss performance science as peers at conferences and other industry events.
When it comes to silicone, Cooper Standard ISG is expert in partnering with customers in a wide variety of industries to ensure that every sealing solution not only meets or exceeds every performance requirement, but also meets every relevant standard, specification, certification and regulation. These frequently include:
UL 9 and UL 10B & 10C: For our customers in the Window & Door industry, the UL’s putting the finished window (UL 9) or door (UL 10B&10C) into a furnace under different conditions can be a daunting challenge. Cooper Standard ISG extensive experience can not only help ensure that the internal silicone seals stand up to the flames, but also help study seal interplay with related components such as hinges or locks to help ensure approval of the entire assembly.
UL 555S: Essential for HVAC customers, Cooper Standard ISG can help ensure that silicone seals optimally control smoke and flame in dampers and ductwork, as we have done for numerous industry manufacturers.
UL 157: Impacting enclosures of all kinds, Cooper Standard ISG can help ensure that silicone seals provide the long-term elastomeric properties to successfully protect box contents from everything from ambient grit and dirt to high pressure wash water. UL 94 Standing up to direct flame over time takes a high quality, expertly formulated silicone material. Cooper Standard ISG products have helped our window and door and other industry customers meet the challenge countless times.
NSF/ANSI 51 and CFR Title 21 FDA Compliance: Cooper Standard ISG develops a wide variety of custom-compounded silicone materials with formulas validated by NSF/ANSI for low extractables, with offerings that are certifiable for both food zones and non-food zones in food processing facilities.
In addition, FDA CFR Title 21 compliance is often achieved as part of the NSF certification process for food industry customers. Since Cooper Standard ISG compounds our own silicone materials, we can accurately attest that ingredients used are the ingredients recommended by the FDA for use in food manufacturing applications.
AAMA 702- Replaceable Fenestration Weatherseal Verified, Class A: Cooper Standard ISG expertise can help window manufacturers build in outstanding weatherability and other key properties, meeting or exceeding AAMA 702 weather stripping performance demands for compression load deflection, compression set, shrinkage resistance and more. In fact, Cooper Standard ISG silicone is proven in use in standing up to UV rays, ozone degradation, high and fluctuating temperatures and more, and is highly compatible with other window system materials.
ASTM D-1056, D-2000 and C-1115: Standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)—often overlapping with desired standards set by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)—loom large among silicone specifiers in many industries. Cooper Standard ISG is expert in creating silicone seals that perform to standards such as:
ASTM D-1056: When specifying flexible sponge material, ensuring the selection of proper density levels and compression quality is vital, and ISG helps demonstrate compression load deflection and other desired sponge silicone properties.
ASTM D-2000: Dense silicone must deliver on many property demands—elongation, tensile strength, high temperature resistance and more—and Cooper Standard ISG formulations are proven in achieving them.
ASTM C-1115: A specific standard focusing mostly upon silicone in window blocking applications, Cooper Standard ISG can help you build in a host of target properties including tear resistance, low temperature flex, type A durometer, elongation, tensile strength, flame propagation, ozone resistance and much more.
REACH: EU regulatory demands are stringent and ever-changing, and silicone first became impacted by REACH SVHC as recently as 2018. For all silicone seals and gaskets, Cooper Standard ISG accurately evaluates the concentration, if any, of the three reportable cyclic silicones in the formulation, and provides the proper documentation required. See the European Silicone Industry statement in this regard at https://www.silicones.eu/industry-position/eu-regulatory-framework-for-silicones/.
RoHS: Like REACH, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive is a regulation administered by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Cooper Standard ISG self-compounded silicones are very high purity rubber materials and are inherently RoHS compliant. Cooper Standard ISG provides a formal supplier declaration to allow silicone seal and gasket customers to fully meet their regulatory obligations under RoHS with regard to these components.
Conflict Minerals Reporting: Cooper Standard is a member of the Responsible Minerals Initiative and is committed to ethical and socially responsible business practices. Our goal is to ensure that the materials and components used in the products that we buy and the products that we manufacture do not support or fund the inhumane treatment of workers or contribute to the environmental degradation associated with the mining of Conflict Minerals. For more information see our social responsibility commitment.
California Proposition 65: Unless specially formulated to meet unusual performance needs, Cooper Standard ISG silicone materials are generally free of California Prop 65 reportable substances, with the surety that comes from compounding our own material from scratch. Customers are provided the necessary documentation as required.
Silicone rubber is the go-to material for a wide range of sealing applications that demand the ability to deliver long term performance under many types of extreme environmental conditions. For example, silicone can help create extruded seals and gaskets that demonstrate high levels of resistance to high heat and flame, retain properties through wide temperature fluctuations between high heat and subzero cold, stand up to exposure to UV rays and other relentless weatherability factors, and much more.
