Products Overview

Custom Rubber Seals and Gaskets

Vanguard is an experienced, certified manufacturer of custom rubber gaskets and seals, which we make from the following materials:

• Silicone
• Fluorosilicone
• Ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM)
• Nitrile butadiene rubber (Buna-N)
• Fluorocarbon elastomers (Viton®, Fluorel®)
• Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)
• Isoprene (natural gum rubber)

We make rubber seals and gaskets for components in these industries:

• Food and beverage: Seals and gaskets in this industry must be made from food-grade rubber polymers, consistent with FDA requirements and listed by NSF International. These rubber components—often found in oven seals, dairy milking machines, and packaging equipment—are antimicrobial and safe to contact food products while withstanding high and low temperatures, fats, and cleaning products.
• Electronics/Electrical: To withstand rugged telecommunications and military applications, these rubber seals and gaskets must be durable and have tight tolerances.
• Medical: These seals must be robust enough to withstand repeated sterilization and chemical cleaning.
  Architectural/Construction: In this industry, rubber seals and gaskets are resistant to extreme temperatures, chemicals, and UV radiation.

Custom Silicone Extrusions

We also specialize in producing extruded silicone products for specific industrial applications, including fiberoptic sheaths, HVAC equipment, and peristaltic tubing.

Benefits of using silicone rubber extrusions include:

• Ideal for cleanroom environments
• Compatible with clean-in-place processes
• Can be sterilized with an autoclave
• Provides proper visual flow confirmation
• Nonthrombogenic
• Nonallergenic
• Low odor

Custom Rubber/Silicone O-Rings

We also design and manufacture top-quality customized O-rings for food-grade and other specialized applications. We can customize these products according to your specific parameters, including color, coating, hardness, chemical resistance, and industry compliance. Specialty materials include:

• White food-grade/FDA-compliant EPDM
• White food-grade/FDA-compliant nitrile
• White food-grade/FDA-compliant silicone
• White food-grade/FDA-compliant fluorocarbon

EMI Shielding Gaskets/Conductive Gaskets

Vanguard produces gaskets to protect electronic equipment from electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI). Our patented Ultra-Vanshield®, Vanshield®, and MICROBRIDGE™ shielding gaskets comply with military specifications. These are the main types of EMI shielding gaskets we manufacture:

• Silicone EMI gaskets
• EPDM EMI gaskets
• Fluorosilicone EMI gaskets

We are a registered manufacturer with the U.S. Department of State, the Compliance and Registration Division, and the Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, pursuant to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR Part 122) and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).

Mil-Spec M83528 EMI/RFI Shielding Gaskets

Our wide selection of capabilities and materials allows us to customize gaskets for nearly any requirement. One of these requirements is compliance with Mil-Spec M83528, which dictates standards for electrically conductive gaskets that block EMI in military applications. We can easily customize these gaskets according to size—from a 0.010” to 3” cross-section—and secondary operations.

Rubber Tubing

In addition to rubber seals and gaskets, Vanguard supplies a wide range of custom and standard extruded and molded tubing. Rubber tubes are used in various applications, so manufacturers use different materials to match the requirements and restrictions of each use case. Examples of tubing materials include:

• Silicone
• Fluorosilicone
• Sponge rubber
• EPDM
• Neoprene
• Nitrile butadiene rubber (Buna-N)
• Fluorocarbon elastomers (Viton®, Fluorel®)
• Butyl Rubber

These industries rely heavily on extruded rubber tubing:

• Petrochemical
• Oil and gas
• Mining
• Medical
• Food and beverage
• Energy
• Electronics
• Automotive

Silicone Tubing

Silicone tubing is a type of tubing made from a rubber-like thermoset material that provides elasticity, flexibility, and weather resistance. Silicone tubing products are ideal for outdoor, sterilized, and electrical applications because they can withstand UV radiation and ozone. It is available in different grades, including:

• Food grade/commercial grade
• High-strength grade
• Platinum cured
• Colored tubing

Benefits of silicone tubing include:

• Wide temperature range (-130 °F to 600 °F)
• Wide hardness range (20 Shore A to 90 Shore A)
• Various color options
• Durable
• Easy to manufacture
• UV, autoclaving, and fungus resistance

Medical Grade Silicone Tubing

Silicone elastomers are commonly found in the biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical sectors, owing to their biocompatibility, ease of use, and versatility.

Benefits of using silicone tubing in the medical industry include:

• Compatible with several sterilization methods
• Biocompatible
• High clarity
• Temperature resistance
• Tasteless and odorless
• Chemically inert
• Available in multiple grades

Common materials for medical tubing include:

• Fluorosilicone
• Silicone

Food Grade Silicone Tubing

Food grade silicone lacks plasticizers, drastically reducing the risk of food contamination from harmful chemicals like BPA. The lack of plasticizers also hinders odors and tastes from interacting with the food or beverage.
Two major applications of food-grade silicone include:

• Dairy transport tubing
• High- and low-temperature silicone tubing

Benefits of food-grade silicone tubing include:

• Durable
• Damage resistance
• NSF-51 certification
• Nontoxic
• Odorless
• High- and low-temperature resistance
• Eco-friendly

EPDM Tubing, Profiles, and Elastomers

We also design and manufacture EPDM tubing products with a wide range of properties, making them ideal for use in various industries and applications. Our capabilities include:

• Single extrusion, coextrusion, and tri-extrusion
• Insert extrusion
• Multi-lumen extrusion
• PSA application
• Special packaging
• Special put-ups
• Frame and O-ring fabrication
• Bonding
• Cutting
• Adhesive applications
• Die-cutting
• Custom formulation for mechanical properties

Some of the industries we serve with EPDM tubing are:

• HVAC
• Industrial
• Automotive
• Nuclear/biological/chemical (NBC) warfare

Custom Molded Rubber Products

Rubber molding involves injecting, transferring, or compressing raw rubber into molds and curing them into the molded shape. We perform rubber molding to produce gaskets, seals, and O-rings for various applications.

Compared to standard rubber molded components, custom molded rubber components provide greater precision and better performance for your specific application. At Vanguard, we offer compression molding, liquid injection molding, insert molding, transfer molding, and extrusion.

Our material selection includes:

• EPDM
• Neoprene
• Silicone
• Fluorocarbon elastomers
• Fluorosilicone

Thermally Integrated EMI Gaskets

5G systems, rising processing speeds, increasing chip power, and shrinking circuit boards present challenges to electronics systems and engineers. Conventional approaches to these issues have been insufficient. A better solution is thermal interface materials (TIM), which enable effective energy transfer from one interface to another. Vanguard utilizes an enhanced integrated approach to produce TIM products with high conductivity, minimal compression, high-temperature resistance, vibration resistance, and excellent durability.

Fabricated EMI/RFI Shielding Products

We engineer and manufacture EMI/RFI shielding products, including Ultra-Vanshield® dual elastomer gaskets that offer the highest shielding and sealing levels at an affordable cost. All products are made in the United States, and we can customize your order according to size, PSA application, bonding, cutting, and other operations.

Our custom capabilities guarantee that we can manufacture products according to nearly any stated requirement.