Question: When you buy a certain durometer of silicone from the manufacturers, what is the actual durometer are you getting?
Answer: Silicone is a very useful material that has been widely used in both non-medical and medical application for decades. For example, silicone has a wide range of operational temperatures (between -150 °F and -600 °F). Moreover, silicone has another interesting property that enables it to be widely used. It has a wide hardness range without additional additives. Shore A scale is typically used to identify the silicone’s hardness and liquid silicone rubber (LSR) is typically available from 01 to 80 durometers (typically in increments of 10 durometers). Nevertheless, there is a variation in hardness when you buy silicone from the manufacturers. The industry standard tolerance for silicone is ±5 durometers. This is due to the variation in the vinyl gums and treated filler used to make them plus the ±2 potential test error in determining the durometer. As a result, you normally don’t get the exact durometer of silicone as listed from the manufacturers; you only get a range of durometers that is close to the desired durometer.