Are you looking for a silicone material for infant products, kitchenware, medical implants, or precision industrial seals? If you’re unsure which products to choose for different temperature ranges, this article will help you make the best choice for your project by explaining how silicone performs at various temperatures.
Typical Operating Temperature of Silicone
Silicone has a wide operating temperature range. Unlike plastics or rubber, it does not soften or even melt at high temperatures, nor does it harden and become brittle at low temperatures. It often performs optimally within a temperature range of -40°C to 200°C.
High-temperature Environments（150°C – 250°C）
When your project requires a temperature environment exceeding 150°C, choose silicone because it demonstrates excellent performance in thermal stability, dielectric properties, UV and oxidation resistance, and compression set at elevated temperatures.
Thermal Stability
When developing products in sectors such as baby products or food-grade kitchenware, safety standards are extremely stringent. To ensure that materials do not melt, leach harmful substances, or emit any pungent odors even at temperatures as high as 200°C, our top recommendation is silicone. When your customers heat or sterilize high-performance silicone products at high temperatures, they will not emit any odors. This peace of mind generates the best feedback, thereby establishing a highly reliable reputation for your brand.
Electrical Insulation Properties
High-temperature environments often cause insulating materials to develop minute current leaks. However, the silicone components are the best material that mitigates the effect of such high-temperature-induced leakage.
If you procure silicone components for use in electric vehicles (EVs) or 5G base stations, the silicone components will establish a dielectric barrier to ensure that signals remain unaffected by leakage, thereby ensuring vehicle safety and signal stability in base stations.
When you select the insulation layer encasing internal sensors for your coffee machines, the degradation of normal materials that prolonged exposure to high temperatures can lead to temperature sensing errors caused by signal drift (for instance, misreading 92°C as 97°C), which is sufficient to compromise the quality of a cup of coffee.
Therefore, we highly recommend that you use the silicone as a sensor grommets for your coffee machines, its stable electrical insulation properties can prevent signal interference, thereby ensuring that the temperature data received by the circuit board is accurate, which ensures the coffee machine’s consistently stable performance.
UV & Oxidation Resistance
If your product is designed for outdoor use, prolonged exposure to high temperatures or UV rays often causes many materials to oxidize, yellow, or crack. However, the chemical properties of silicone give it exceptional oxidation resistance, so it is unlikely to yellow or crack even under intense sunlight.
Therefore, we recommend using silicone for your product casings. Since they remain as good as new even after prolonged use, this performance will give users a sense of exceptional value for money. This provides you with significant room for maneuver when setting product prices.
Compression Set at Elevated Temperatures
If you ever notice hot air escaping from the edges of your oven—or even hear the distinct sound of air leakage—this is typically because its sealing strip has been subjected to prolonged exposure to the oven’s high operating temperatures and constant pressure. Over time, this leads to compression and deformation, causing the strip to lose its original sealing integrity.
However, if you select a silicone material featuring superior compression set recovery characteristics for your oven’s sealing strips, its exceptional elasticity will effectively resolve the vast majority of potential after-sales issues.
Furthermore, when silicone is utilized as a gasket material for electric vehicle battery packs, it effectively prevents gasket deformation—a potential source of safety hazards.
For instance, it provides reliable protection in scenarios such as fast-charging an EV during a summer downpour, where there is a risk of rainwater seeping into the battery pack’s interior.
Thus, our high-performance silicone solutions stand as a tangible testament to our unwavering commitment to your safety within the new energy sector.
Low-temperature Environments（-40°C – -60°C）
Most elastomers tend to become brittle at extremely low temperatures. Silicone, however, does not easily become brittle. Why? Because silicone’s glass transition temperature is typically around -120°C, in other words, silicone only exhibits brittleness when the temperature reaches the extreme of -120°C. Therefore, even in the frigid conditions of -60°C, it maintains excellent flexibility & compression set resistance, surface energy stability, and dielectric strength consistency.
Flexibility & Compression Set Resistance
Suppose you supply silicone gaskets to a medical device company for medical cold chain boxes. If these gaskets harden and lose their elasticity due to low temperatures, even the slightest gap could cause the cold air inside the box to escape, resulting in the spoilage of samples. This could lead to significant financial losses and even medical accidents. However, using silicone gaskets manufactured with a high-resilience solution can prevent massive financial losses and protect the lives and health of others.
Surface Energy Stability
The nature of silicone makes it difficult for ice to adhere to its surface.
When your users engage in outdoor activities in cold, humid environments, silicone-based sports gear ensures that the silicone buttons on their equipment are unlikely to freeze or become stuck with ice. If your users can perform these operations smoothly, it will significantly enhance their outdoor experience.
In cryogenic storage cabinets, rubber gaskets can freeze between the door frame and the gasket due to the cold, damp environment, causing the door to become tightly sealed and impossible to open. Silicone’s hydrophobic properties, however, prevent condensation from lingering on its surface to freeze.
Dielectric Strength Consistency
Just as in high-temperature environments, silicone demonstrates excellent electrical insulation properties even in extremely low-temperature conditions.
The electrical insulation properties of silicone ensure that, as a drone ascends and the surrounding temperature drops with increasing altitude, its aviation sensors will not malfunction due to extreme cold, thereby preventing any negative impact on the user experience for drone owners.
In addition, it ensures that the outdoor electronic devices you supply or develop will not lose contact due to signal interruptions in extremely cold regions.
Performance under Significant Temperature Fluctuations
Whether it’s a smart wearable device you’ve developed—transitioning instantly from a heated room to snowy outdoor conditions—or an automotive engine powered by components you supply, silicone materials ensure a certain level of stability even under extreme thermal shock.
Low Thermal Expansion
When using silicone in precision industrial equipment, your products often involve assemblies combining silicone with other materials. Its low thermal expansion rate allows for highly precise manufacturing.
For example, in components where silicone is bonded to metal, the low thermal expansion rate ensures that the assembly remains tightly bonded even when exposed to alternating hot and cold temperatures, preventing parts from detaching due to delamination.
Dimensional Stability
It exhibits excellent dimensional stability (dimensional memory). This conclusion is based on countless thermal cycling tests.
This means that in products such as ovens and coffee machines, even after thousands of temperature changes over many years, silicone-related components, such as button seals, will remain as good as new. This reduces your after-sales costs and improves user feedback.
Thermal Shock Resistance
If outdoor electrical equipment or base stations encounter sudden heavy snowfall, causing drastic temperature fluctuations in a short period, high-performance silicone can rapidly adapt to the sudden drop in temperature without cracking.
Customized high-performance silicone solutions ensure that your home appliances will not fracture, even in the event of user error, such as contact with cold water while the appliance is hot, thereby safeguarding the reputation of your products in the industry.
How to Choose the Right Silicone for Different Temperatures
150°C – 200°C
When selecting a silicone material suitable for this temperature range, there are two key factors to prioritize. The first is whether the silicone material is safe and compliant with regulations, and the second is ensuring good resilience.
In most sectors related to infant products, kitchenware, and home appliances, customers consider product safety to be the most important factor. Some standard or low-quality silicones may emit odors at 150°C, which can lead to customer complaints and a series of after-sales issues.
Therefore, if your product requires food-grade compliance or involves direct contact with food or skin, please prioritize the platinum curing process. Platinum-cured silicone materials perfectly meet the requirements for odor-free performance.
If your product involves industrial sealing or is intended for use in automotive components, sustained compression at 180°C can cause the silicone to undergo permanent deformation. If this occurs in a silicone gasket, it will render your product useless.
Therefore, when customizing such materials, you must pay close attention to the material’s compression set rating. Selecting a formulation with a high cross-linking density will ensure the material returns to its original state even after exposure to high temperatures.
200°C – 250°C+
In the temperature range of 200°C to 250°C+, standard silicone begins to age and embrittle, resulting in a loss of elasticity. As a decision-maker, if your silicone products need to function properly within the 200°C–500°C range, you must require your supplier to develop a solution that enhances the silicone’s performance when customizing your silicone solution.
For your silicone products to work at 250°C for extended periods, they must remain flexible to prevent breakage under stress due to brittleness.
We recommend selecting high-performance compounded silicone rubber (HCR) as the base material for your custom silicone, as it is an effective way to ensure the product maintains high resilience even under stress at temperatures above 200–250°C.
When used for industrial silicone seals, your custom silicone products will eliminate leakage issues, resulting in significant savings on future maintenance costs.
When using silicone as a precision industrial component, you may be concerned about dimensional shrinkage caused by volatilization at high temperatures. During procurement, you can request the addition of ultra post-curing (e.g., 230°C for 8–12 hours) to prevent silicone parts from becoming loose due to dimensional changes.
-40°C to -60°C
When your project requires silicone to perform in extremely cold environments, you should focus on three key performance characteristics when selecting and customizing a solution.
Silicone’s low-temperature resilience ensures it does not lose its elasticity in extremely cold conditions. If you are using silicone gaskets in such environments, good low-temperature resilience can reduce the risk of equipment leaks.
If this performance is required, you can instruct the manufacturer to strictly adhere to the TR10 standard during customization. Additionally, you can request that they reduce the silicone’s base hardness to mitigate hardening at low temperatures.
Aerospace equipment operates accompanied by vibrations, which places extremely high demands on the low-temperature brittle point of the silicone customized for such applications. PVMQ is the standard material of choice for aerospace and polar exploration equipment. This is best suited for projects requiring resistance to vibration.
If your project has specific requirements regarding product texture and feel, we recommend using high-purity raw silicone as the base material. This minimizes surface whitening or hardening caused by cryogenic precipitation, ensuring your product retains a normal-temperature feel even in extreme cold.
FAQ
Why Do My Silicone Seals Withstand High Temperatures in an Oven Without Any Issues, But Quickly Deteriorate in High-Temperature Steam Environments (Such as Dishwashers or Autoclaves)?
This is because the mechanisms by which dry heat in the air and moist heat in a steam environment degrade silicone are completely different. Steam causes a reaction in silicone similar to hydrolysis. If your application involves high temperatures and high humidity, please be sure to inform us when requesting a quote. We need to customize a specific formulation for you based on the specific conditions. The operating medium (air or steam) is a critical factor that determines the material’s service life.
The Product Performed Perfectly in Laboratory Testing, But It Warped or Developed a White Discoloration During Long-Distance Transport in Cold Weather. Why Is That?
Typically, the problem lies not in the manufacturing process, but in the drastic temperature fluctuations that occur during logistics. Low-cost compounds contain a large number of untreated small molecules. In warehouse environments with alternating hot and cold temperatures, these molecules migrate to the surface, much like sweating. If your products require long-distance transport and extended storage, we recommend choosing our high-purity raw material solution. Manufacturers typically conduct simulated transport tests to ensure that your components remain intact even after being stored in a container at -30°C for a month.
Platinum-Cured Silicone Is Definitely Great, But It’s Over My Budget. Are There Any Alternatives?
We recommend a compromise. If your product does not come into direct contact with food or the human body, there is indeed no need to insist on platinum-cured silicone throughout the entire process. When placing your order, you can request a hybrid solution. Provided that temperature resistance is ensured, the vulcanization process does not need to be strictly enforced. However, if odor control is a concern for your product, secondary vulcanization is both more cost-effective and effective than switching to more expensive materials.
Final Thoughts
From extreme cold at -60°C to high-temperature baking at 250°C, whether you’re concerned about customer complaints due to odors or seal failure, Legensilico offers a one-stop service covering everything from custom formulation to performance testing. We invite you to contact our team so we can tailor the perfect solution for your project.
