Grill Us on Polyurethane Applications for Your Industry

The moment imprints itself in a person’s memory like a flash of lightning leaves a vivid path once the eyes are closed.  In this instance, it was a hamburger patty at the bottom of the box. Not just any box – a wooden box residing in the loft of the manufacturing facility where it was a sweltering one hundred degrees. Amazingly, it still looked good. It was a nice brown color with little white speckles of fat. To the touch, it was not tacky or slimy, and I could detect no odor. I carefully examined the patty, admiring the texture and plump round shape. Glancing back in the box, I spied a few more hamburger patties littering the bottom. My find left me giddy with excitement. I had a business expo looming on the calendar, and these hamburger patties were going to be the star of the show. Of course, that was why we had been contracted to cast them in the first place. A company that manufactured equipment that formed hamburger patties asked us to cook up some samples that they could run in their machines for demonstrations. Always up to a challenge, our Polyurethane Department designed and cast numerous life-like hamburger patties.  

I still remember the day I discovered the patties and the story of their origins. It showcased for me how polyurethane had proven to be such a versatile and creative material. Ephrata Precision specializes in polyurethane for industrial applications, and our files are rife with interesting examples. Besides hamburger patties, we’ve manufactured metal-impregnated polyurethane chocolate bars to test metal detection lines in candy factories. For all chocolate lovers out there, making sure that metal bits do not fall into the vat of chocolate and make their way to our mouths is a very important application. I test our work frequently.  

The applications for polyurethane are numerous and varied. While we do our fair share of wheels, rollers, pads, and gears, it is always fun to encounter a new part or application that requires us to think outside the box. As custom molders, we enjoy the plethora of parts and colors that cycle through our shop. One customer had a boss that hated pink, so he had us cast his wheels with hot pink pigment. We have molded treads for high end patio furniture beyond our pay grade and horns for award-winning antique cars. Ephrata has cast wheels that rotate vats of cereal, pads for injured cow hooves, mats used to manufacture solar panels, and dead-blow pads that prevent metal bars from bouncing out of bins. In over three decades of existence, we have encountered fascinating applications from across the continental United States. If we can manufacture fake hamburger patties and chocolate bars, just imagine what our polyurethane can do for your business!