This week, something interesting is happening in the silicone industry.
The biggest developments are not about inventing another silicone kitchen utensil or changing the color of an existing product. Instead, manufacturers are focusing on a much more practical question:
How can we make complex silicone parts more accurately, with fewer production steps and less manual adjustment?
Several announcements released in early September 2026 point in the same direction.
WACKER is introducing a new self-adhesive liquid silicone rubber that can eliminate postcuring for certain applications. ELMET is bringing automatic cavity balancing and process optimization into LSR molds. ENGEL is preparing to demonstrate high-precision LSR seals for EV inverter components. And next week’s LSR 2026 conference will put new materials, processing technology and emerging applications under the spotlight. (EBS PublicNow)
From our perspective at DX, these aren’t isolated product launches.
Together, they show where custom silicone manufacturing is heading: fewer secondary processes, better process control, more demanding silicone overmolding and increasingly precise parts.
Let’s look at what that means for product developers and buyers.
One of this week’s most interesting announcements came from WACKER.
On September 7, WACKER announced ELASTOSIL LR 5471, which it describes as its first non-postcure liquid silicone rubber with self-adhesive properties.
Why does that matter?
In conventional silicone overmolding, getting silicone to reliably bond with a rigid substrate can be one of the more complicated parts of the project.
The substrate might be:
plastic + silicone
metal + silicone
or another rigid material combined with a soft silicone surface.
Depending on the material combination, manufacturers may need primers, surface treatments, mechanical locking structures or additional curing operations.
WACKER says the new material contains bonding agents within the polymer and can adhere to several metals as well as thermoplastics including PBT and PET. More importantly, it achieves very low volatile content without postcuring. (EBS PublicNow)
That could remove an entire production step for suitable applications.
And eliminating a process step matters more than it might sound.
Postcuring requires:
time + ovens + energy + handling + production space + additional quality control.
Remove one of those operations and the production flow becomes easier to automate.
For large-volume projects, that can make a meaningful difference.
Skipping postcure would not be particularly exciting if the material could only be used for general industrial components.
What makes this development more relevant is the target application.
WACKER says ELASTOSIL LR 5471 complies with German BfR recommendations concerning silicone for food contact. The material is being positioned for applications including food-contact products, medical devices and infant-care products, depending on the finished product’s requirements. (EBS PublicNow)
This is a useful direction for manufacturers like us because many DX projects fall into exactly these categories.
Think about a kitchen utensil with a rigid plastic core and silicone grip.
Or a baby product combining silicone with another material.
Or a medical component where a soft silicone sealing surface needs to be integrated onto a rigid substrate.
Traditionally, product designers sometimes avoid multi-material structures because they make manufacturing too complicated.
New self-bonding LSR technologies could gradually change that equation.
But there is an important point here:
A new material does not automatically make every overmolding project easy.
Bonding still depends on substrate material, geometry, mold design, processing conditions and the actual performance requirements of the finished component.
At DX, our silicone overmolding services are therefore approached as an engineering project rather than simply a molding operation.
The material combination needs to be evaluated before tooling.
Materials aren’t the only thing changing.
Molds themselves are becoming more intelligent.
On September 3, ELMET announced that it will publicly introduce its SMARTshot i cold-runner system at Fakuma 2026.
The interesting part is what happens inside the mold.
According to ELMET, the system continuously analyzes the injection process, automatically balances individual cavities and optimizes nozzle-pin positions. (Konsens Public Relations)
This addresses a very real problem in multi-cavity LSR production.
Imagine an eight-cavity mold.
In theory, every cavity should fill identically.
In actual manufacturing, small differences in:
can affect filling.
Traditionally, experienced technicians may need to tune the system to get all cavities behaving consistently.
Now imagine the mold helping to make those adjustments automatically.
That is a significant direction for LSR manufacturing.
The technology becomes particularly interesting for family molds.
A family mold contains different parts—or different-sized cavities—within the same mold.
For example, imagine producing several silicone components belonging to the same assembled product in one molding cycle.
The problem is that a small component and a large component don’t necessarily fill at the same rate.
That makes balancing difficult.
ELMET says its new system can automatically adjust nozzle positions according to the filling behavior of individual cavities, reducing the need for time-consuming manual filling studies. (Konsens Public Relations)
For OEM product development, this could eventually create some interesting possibilities.
Instead of asking only:
“How many cavities can we fit in this mold?”
engineers can increasingly ask:
“Can we intelligently control how each cavity fills?”
That could help manufacturers produce complex silicone part families more consistently.
Another September announcement shows how far precision silicone molding is moving.
At Fakuma 2026, ENGEL plans to demonstrate production of a high-precision LSR seal for an inverter component.
The reported target is impressive: tolerances down to approximately one hundredth of a millimeter, with the molded seal produced without rework. (Plastech)
This application is particularly relevant to electric vehicles.
An inverter converts electrical energy between the battery and electric motor, and its components may need reliable sealing against environmental exposure.
Silicone is attractive here because of its temperature resistance, elasticity and long-term sealing characteristics.
But precision sealing introduces another challenge:
flash.
Silicone flows extremely well.
That is useful when filling complicated geometries—but it also means silicone can escape into extremely small gaps in the mold.
Even tiny variations in clamping pressure, viscosity or material batch can affect flash formation. ENGEL specifically highlights these issues in its upcoming demonstration. (Plastech)
This is why producing a precision silicone seal is not simply about cutting a cavity into steel and injecting silicone into it.
Tooling precision, venting, material behavior, clamping and process stability all work together.
Put these announcements together and a pattern starts appearing.
The next stage of silicone manufacturing is increasingly about controlling variables.
Material suppliers are developing silicone that eliminates processing steps.
Mold-system suppliers are introducing automatic cavity optimization.
Machine manufacturers are pushing precision and process stability.
Product manufacturers are being asked to produce more complicated parts at increasingly competitive costs.
This shift will be one of the major themes at LSR 2026 in Akron, Ohio, from September 14–17.
The conference specifically highlights new silicone chemistry, additives, novel manufacturing techniques, emerging technologies and applications across medical, automotive, electronics and consumer markets. (Executive Conference)
So while individual technologies will continue to change, the broader direction looks quite clear:
More automation.
More process data.
More material specialization.
More precision.
Fewer unnecessary production steps.
Another development from this week reinforces that direction.
At SEMICON Taiwan 2026, Dow showcased silicone materials targeting the increasingly difficult thermal, mechanical and integration requirements created by AI computing, high-performance computing and advanced semiconductor packaging. (Rubber World Magazine)
This illustrates how far silicone applications have moved beyond traditional consumer products.
Silicone can now be found around:
EV power electronics
battery systems
electrical connectors
semiconductor packaging
thermal-management systems
sensors
medical electronics
wearable devices
These applications often need silicone for a very specific performance reason rather than simply because it is soft.
That changes how buyers should approach material selection.
Instead of asking:
“What is your silicone price?”
the more useful question becomes:
“Which silicone and manufacturing process fits this operating environment?”
Temperature range, compression set, electrical properties, chemical exposure, bonding requirements, hardness and dimensional tolerances may all matter.
Healthcare is another good example.
Earlier in 2026, DuPont launched its Liveo C6-8XX medical-grade LSR series.
The company specifically highlighted lower viscosity and improved rheology designed to enable faster, more consistent molding cycles and automated manufacturing. (dupont)
Again, notice the pattern.
The innovation isn’t simply:
“Here is a new silicone.”
It’s:
“Here is a silicone designed to make the manufacturing process more controllable.”
That distinction matters.
For medical silicone parts, consistency between production batches can be just as important as the nominal properties listed on a material data sheet.
A prototype that works once isn’t enough.
The process needs to reproduce it thousands—or millions—of times.
There is one more development buyers should watch.
The Chinese silicone market has been strengthening.
Shanghai Metals Market reported on September 3 that silicone prices continued moving upward as cost pressure, production controls and seasonal demand supported the market. Its reported operating rates were around 60%, with inventories at mid-to-low levels for the year and many producers holding pre-sale orders into mid-to-late September. (news.metal.com)
For OEM buyers, this is another reason not to evaluate a silicone project purely by today’s raw-material price.
Material is only one part of the final cost.
A better calculation is:
Material + Mold + Cycle Time + Labor + Scrap + Secondary Processing + Assembly + Quality Control
This is where process selection becomes important.
For example, DX’s silicone compression molding can be a cost-effective solution for lower MOQs, smaller batches and projects where keeping initial tooling investment lower is important. (siliconedx)
For higher-volume production, complex geometries or projects that benefit from automation, liquid injection molding (LIM/LSR) may make more sense.
Neither process is universally better.
The right answer depends on the product.
This is one of the most common questions we receive at DX.
A simple way to think about it is this.
Production volume is small or medium.
You need relatively low mold investment.
You want several colors in smaller batches.
The part geometry is suitable for compression molding.
Initial project cost is a major consideration.
DX specifically uses compression molding for these kinds of projects because it can provide relatively low tooling costs and shorter development lead times. (siliconedx)
Production volumes are high.
Automation is important.
The geometry is complicated.
Repeatability needs to be tightly controlled.
The product contains fine details or thin sections.
Silicone needs to be overmolded onto another material.
The important thing is to make this decision before mold development, not after.
For us at DX, this week’s industry developments reinforce something we’ve believed for a long time:
A good silicone manufacturer should not simply manufacture the drawing a customer sends.
We need to understand how that drawing will behave in production.
Sometimes a wall needs adjusting.
Sometimes a parting line should move.
Sometimes compression molding makes more sense than LSR.
Sometimes an overmolding structure needs a mechanical lock.
Sometimes combining two parts into one can reduce assembly costs.
And sometimes the cheapest-looking tooling option becomes the most expensive choice once mass production starts.
DX currently supports a range of silicone manufacturing processes including in-house tooling, compression molding, liquid injection molding, silicone overmolding, extrusion, secondary operations and assembly. (siliconedx)
That allows us to evaluate a project according to what the product actually needs rather than forcing every product into the same manufacturing process.
The phrase custom silicone product is sometimes interpreted as:
“Make this product in my color and put my logo on it.”
That’s certainly one type of customization.
But the projects becoming more interesting in 2026 go much further.
They involve:
custom material selection
custom hardness
precision silicone parts
custom seals and gaskets
silicone-to-plastic overmolding
silicone-to-metal overmolding
multi-component product design
custom tooling
automated LSR manufacturing
That’s the direction we expect to see more of.
And as silicone materials and molding systems become smarter, product designers will have more freedom to combine silicone with other materials and build functions directly into molded components.
If you’re developing a custom silicone product, precision silicone part, LSR component, silicone seal, gasket or overmolded silicone part, you don’t need to decide the entire manufacturing process before contacting us.
Send DX your drawing, 3D file, existing sample or product concept.
Our team can review the structure and help evaluate material selection, mold design, compression molding, liquid silicone injection molding, overmolding and secondary processing before you commit to mass production.
DX provides you with all-around silicone product customization services for valued customers like you.
