Die-cut foam gaskets and strips.
Gaskets, sealing strips, rings and damping pads cut to your drawing — for enclosures, panels and cabinets. Including honest advice about when open-cell foam is the wrong material for your joint.
Open-cell or closed-cell.
This is the decision that determines whether a foam gasket works, and it is the one most often got wrong. The two materials look similar and behave completely differently.
- Open-cell foam — a connected lattice. Air and water pass straight through it. It compresses very easily and recovers well. Right for dust exclusion, cushioning, vibration damping and acoustic work.
- Closed-cell foam — a mass of sealed bubbles. Blocks air and water, pushes back harder when compressed. Right for weather sealing and anything holding a pressure difference.
Reticulated foam is emphatically open-cell — deliberately, aggressively permeable, since that is what makes it a filter. So if your joint has to keep water out or hold pressure, reticulated foam is the wrong material and we will tell you so rather than sell it to you. Where it is excellent is the very common case that gets over-specified: a joint that only needs to keep dust out, take up a tolerance gap, and stop two parts rattling.
Three real jobs.
- Dust sealing. Around enclosure lids, cabinet doors and panel edges, where the requirement is particulate exclusion rather than a water rating. Compresses to fill an uneven gap without needing high closing force.
- Cushioning and tolerance take-up. Between a board and a housing, behind a fascia, under a display. Foam absorbs the accumulated tolerance of an assembly, which is why a well-specified gasket removes rattles that no amount of tightening fixes.
- Vibration damping. Decoupling a component from a chassis so mechanical noise does not transmit. The open lattice deforms rather than transmitting, which is exactly what a rigid mount does not do.
Getting the compression right.
A gasket seals because it is compressed. If it is still at free thickness when the joint closes, it is decoration. If it is fully crushed, it has no recovery left and stops working the first time the panel is opened and closed.
As a starting point, aim for a working compression of roughly a quarter to a half of the free thickness, with enough margin that the gasket is still compressed at the widest end of your tolerance stack-up. That last part is what people miss: the gap is never the nominal gap on every unit built.
Send us the nominal gap and the tolerance range rather than a thickness, and we will suggest a thickness and grade. A firmer, finer grade resists more for a given compression; a soft coarse grade conforms to an irregular surface more willingly.
Cut with the part it seals.
Gaskets are die-cut to your profile — strips, rings, flange outlines with bolt holes and internal apertures, all cut in one operation. See die-cutting to your drawing for what to send and how tooling is priced. If you want adhesive backing, say so at the enquiry stage rather than later: it changes how the part is cut and handled, so it is a decision made before tooling.
The most useful case is ordering the gasket alongside the thing it seals. When we are also making your PCB enclosure or printed housing, the gasket is cut from the same drawing set as the part — which removes the fitting problems that appear when a housing from one supplier meets a seal from another on your assembly bench.
Common questions.
Can reticulated foam be used as a gasket?
For dust sealing, cushioning and vibration damping, yes, and it die-cuts into gasket profiles cleanly. For sealing against water or air pressure it is the wrong choice — an open lattice is deliberately permeable. If the joint has to hold pressure or exclude liquid, a closed-cell foam or an elastomer is what you want, and we will say so rather than sell you the open-cell material.
What is the difference between open-cell and closed-cell foam for gaskets?
Open-cell foam is a connected lattice: air and water pass straight through it, and it compresses very easily. Closed-cell foam is a mass of sealed bubbles: it blocks air and water and pushes back harder when compressed. Open-cell suits dust exclusion, cushioning and damping; closed-cell suits weather and pressure sealing.
Can you cut gaskets with adhesive backing?
Tell us at the enquiry stage and we will confirm what is practical for the grade and profile. Adhesive-backed foam changes how the part is die-cut and handled, so it is a decision made before tooling rather than added afterwards.
What thickness should a foam gasket be?
Enough that it is still compressed when the joint closes, with margin for tolerance stack-up across the assembly. As a starting point, aim for a working compression of roughly a quarter to a half of the free thickness. Send the gap and the tolerance range and we will suggest a thickness rather than guessing.
Do you supply gaskets for the enclosures you manufacture?
Yes, and it is worth asking for both together. When we are also making the PCB enclosure or the printed housing, the gasket is cut to the same drawing set as the part it seals, which removes the usual round of fitting problems between two suppliers.
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