Acrotech Inc. has established it’s role in the metalworking industry with a line of urethane based products to make professional results a reality for virtually anyone that has the capacity and willingness to use them. Our primary focus is to offer products for those working with light to medium and specialty materials that may want to avoid the following things. 1.) Overworking of the material and 2:) Marking the material. As no two applications are really the same we are able to compensate for this by using our formulated urethane in hardness for each application.

When metal needs consistent / repetitive holes and openings punched in them there are conventional ways of doing this by using a punch press, iron worker or similar style of tooling. The typical stripper would allow to push against the material for an easy mechanical release. This poses a very large problem for light to delicate sheet metal in other forms than common mild steel. The problem is marking of the material, scratches, dents and or a combination of the two upon release. This causes at a minimum of several steps to remove and repair the finished metal. Of course if your product requires a paint or powder finish upon completion it may not matter but we deal with customers that want this process completed on stainless steel, aluminum, brass, copper, titanium, etc. The demand for a mark free finish can be satisfied.

Our SurStrip™ punch strippers simply fit right over the punch itself, available in a large amount of common sizes have a conveniently placed air hole to ensure a tight fit for the first stroke when forming the stripper. These are ideal for literally any shaped punch you can dream of. They will form the exact shape on the first stroke and last for a considerable amount of time. They provide a safe working environment for operators and will not shatter or break upon constant use. SurStrip™ urethane punch strippers sized correctly will stay in place for repeated amounts of use in hard and demanding environments. Very well suited for production applications and OEM product manufacturing. Available in different durometers to satisfy your material and tooling requirements. Especially useful in situations with polished, thinner and delicate metals.

If you would like to view more about our SurStrip™ urethane punch strippers and check current pricing please visit this link.

Contact us if you have further questions or need something custom built to match your tooling. We welcome OEM manufacturers to join with us to create solutions that are both helpful and reduce overall costs.

Acrotech Inc. has always been at the forefront of metalworking solutions. A common theme with metalworking has always been scratches, marks or marring in the metal when it is bent in a press brake. Commonly found press brake dies are usually made of steel with almost zero consideration to the finish of the metal part that is being bent into it. Costs of steel v-dies are extreme with the machining involved to get precision angles and lengths needed to complete the job. The steel die has a tremendous lifespan if taken care of but it attracts un needed things such as dirt, grease, rust and more. Transfer of this to the sheet metal is not desired and will cause issues in the finish of the part.

We offer two simple solutions for this metalworking problem. 1. Acrohyde Die Film that goes over your existing steel v-die. This is a temporary solution but very versatile. 2. Urethane V-Dies that completely replace your steel dies. A permanent solution to effectively bend metal without marks.

1. Acrohyde is a urethane die film that is draped over your steel die before bending metal to reduce or eliminate marks in the metal. We stock and sell this in various sizes and lengths to offer a solution to your finished metal bending problems. This film is very long lasting and you can make multiple bends using the same piece.

2. Urethane Press Brake Dies: We have come up with this solution to completely eliminate the use of steel press brake dies. Made of durable 75D urethane it is roughly the hardness of a bowling ball. Theses are extremely durable, much lighter and easier to handle. A standard 1/2 x 5/8 tang is molded into the part and allows for multiple pieces to be butted up for bending really large / long pieces of metal. We pour these in 48″ lengths and are sold in 12, 24, 36 and 48″ respectively.

Have a custom length you need? Let us know! Many sizes shapes and bends are available. Please visit this page for more information on our Urethane Brake Dies. We supply many OEM manufacturers with these V-dies and they rely on Acrotech for this special metalworking secret. Have questions? Need product support? Contact Us, we are here and happy to help.

The applications for rolled sheet metal parts are endless. Products are made everyday that use extremely expensive and bulky machines just to simply roll sheetmetal, some parts end up coming out with more scratches and problems than when they went in. The need for a robust and fast machine that can fit in line with budgets is difficult to find. Maybe you are interested in prototyping a part prior to putting in to production? Acrotech has filled the void with our roll bending machine lineup. We offer our unique and highly robust machines to satisfy any industrial light to medium duty need for sheet metal rolling.

The unique part of our machinery is that it can be completely customized for your needs. Tooling is available for rolling parts small or large diameter and thickness of the material. Our urethane roller not only allows a smooth form, we are able to roll parts at the right pressure to ensure a defect free finish. Have special extruded or cut out parts to roll? No Problem, the urethane acts as a buffer and will allow it to keep its shape while rolling in the diameter that you need. for intricate parts or less deformation we are able to customize the urethane durometer or hardness to suit your material. Adding safety features and fencing to comply with codes are our specialty. The list goes on…

We recently built a custom V-1006 vertical sheet metal rolling machine for a customer. We added a bunch of safety features, custom controls and a feed bar / guide for effortless and repeat rolling. The vertical rolling machines unique feature is that the part is released down when the cycle has finished. Simply add a bin or add a conveyor for easy transition to the next stage of production.

Check out the video below to see more pictures of this machine and to see it operating. Note how easy it is to load the parts and how quickly they are released. Pushing out parts like this in approximately 10 seconds is simply a great over time cost savings. Be sure to contact us for more information and feel free to talk with our engineers about how we could help customize a sheet metal rolling machine for your application.

One of the more commonly asked questions we get is about urethane durometer. Durometer is the measure of resistance to surface penetration. This is measured with an actual durometer hardness tester that pushes against the urethane and is represented in the shore A, D scales. A being the softer side of things and D being on the harder side.

The measurement of urethane durometer is the same regardless of manufacturer but the way urethane is manufactured can vary greatly. Acrotech Inc. which has been producing K•Prene® Urethane for the last 30 plus years has been at the forefront of custom molded urethane and urethane based products. Our history and success has consistently produced durable yet resilient urethane while maintaining exceptional value. We are certain that over time by correctly using K•Prene® you will see significant cost savings and value.

For those that do not deal with urethane on a daily basis and or are looking to potentially produce parts with urethane please use the following chart. This chart is used as a guideline only comparing everyday items to the shore A / D durometers of our standard K•Prene® products.

Of course there will be questions. We are here to answer them. In certain cases and applications you may benefit from a different durometer than what you are currently using. We can discuss this more in detail if you contact us. If you are just starting and would like to look over our catalog please visit this page to request your own along with a sample keychain. If you have a CAD file or would like to upload a sketch of a product that you’d like to make in urethane please visit this page for more information on how to do that.

Acrotech Inc. offers several different sized sheet metal roll bending machines to cover a vast array of applications and product lines from thin intricate sheet metal to thicker heavy duty sheet metal. Our unique roll bending machine lineup offers those looking to take advantage of the popular one pass two roll machine while using urethane to help reduce makings on the finished product. With our machines we are able to roll parts the size of your finger to as big as you are tall. This is achieved by using different attachments that are sold separately from our base units.

In particular one of our most popular roll bending units is the 1618. This machine is quite versatile and able to roll smaller to medium sized sheet metal parts up to 18″ of working roller length in 16ga in mild steel. With a powerful 1hp motor this machine can be set up for some fast repeatable runs. We offer a small OD attachment that will allow you to roll parts as small as 1″ in diameter for precision parts repeatable for production use. Contact us to see how we can help you get on a roll in 2020! 

We have scanned and uploaded a clean / easy to read version of our old Metalforming Guidebook. In this guidebook you will find several ways we suggest forming metal using urethane. There are a lot of older techniques being used but some still apply today and are invaluable when fabricating with urethane for the first time. The guidebook goes through topics such as, urethane properties, urethane for drawing metal, embossing, forming, stripping, shedding and more.

Click on the photo to download and save the guidebook.

If you are looking to download our new catalog please click here Also we will be happy to send you a copy along with our sample keychain if you live in the Continental US. Please access our request a catalog page here.

Check out our newest YouTube video. Embossing Sheet Metal with Urethane. Urethane is a perfect universal die pad for embossing. It will handle all types of material and details. We stock our standard sheets in 40A, 60A, 80A, 90A, 95A and 75D We will custom cut these to your needed size and ship daily. Because of so many variables you may need to experiment on the durometer harness to achieve your desired results. If you are unsure feel free to contact us anytime. Contact Us Here. Check out the video. Leave a Like and Comment!

Urethane is that likely choice for embossing sheet metal materials that most haven’t even heard of or thought of using. The urethane’s elasticity is such that it will form and create the other side of the die when forming parts. As pressure increases the urethane will try to fill the voids in your negative creating a nice emboss over and over. The great thing about urethane is that it lasts a very long time and can be used repeatedly for consistent results. The durometer or hardness of the urethane can be customized using our special formulas to help when forming different thicknesses of metals or details in your patterns. Save time and money when you are on your next embossing project. We have sheets of urethane in stock. Please view the available sizes here and if you need a custom sized piece contact us here.

Depending on the resources, time and money available to you there may be the option and advantage of making a mold in house. We have plenty of customers that choose to make molds and send them to us for us to pour our highly durable K-Prene® urethane. The foreseen advantage is complete control of the mold and overall outcome of the part being produced resulting in the potential lowered costs of engineering and manufacturing of the mold in house. Of course this can create unforeseen problems and extend the amount of time it takes to complete the mold making process if we cannot correctly pour the part or there happens to be a mistake in the mold.

Because we are a urethane and mold making manufacturer we work with businesses like you, do this every day and can design molds that we know will end up working with our manufacturing processes. The idea behind having this service under one roof is to cut down on overall costs and time that it takes to complete a finished product. We are very competitive with our rates for engineering, mold making and machining as well as the urethane itself. We have a dedicated mold room to house your molds on site and only to be used for your production needs. After all of the time spent on communication, shipping and freight charges we strongly suggest you Contact Us to discuss your application with us before deciding to build molds in house.

In the event you can manage all of the above in house under cost and are prototyping – have small production runs it could work in your advantage to make molds at your facility and we are happy to consult with you on this. Contact Us for more information or call 1-800-345-0583

We manufacture and pour blocks of urethane for a customer that will further machine them for their particular application. This photo shows that we pour these very large blocks of 90A durometer urethane on various thicknesses of plate steel. The end user will then set them in a fixture for mill machining them as well as locate and drill all of the holes for a final product. The sky is the limit for these types of applications. Higher durometer urethane is easily machined to exacting tolerances while allowing for a final product that will be durable and forgivable for your application. You can trust Acrotech Inc. to provide you with the best and most consistent urethane in the industry. Contact Us for a quote on how this service could work for you and your business.