Research & Development

GEL SMART’s commitment to innovation and our ability to innovate differentiate us from typical gel manufacturers.  And our quality standards place us in very select company.

Our advanced research and development facilities and capabilities enable us to put our commitment to innovation and quality to work in developing new products for ourselves and our business partners. 

We maintain two state-of-the-art R&D labs:

• Gel development
• Product development and manufacture process prototyping
  

GEL SMART’s R&D staff includes experienced design engineers and an in-house application chemist.  Our business development managers are actively involved in market research, as well as specifying materials for their customers.

Gel and materials testing and development
Developing and refining gel formulations are primary ongoing activities in our labs.  GEL SMART engineers routinely test concepts and add fragrances, active ingredients and other additives to our standard gel formulations to meet specified performance.  We develop custom polymers if indicated.

We also source and test materials and fabrics for specific applications.  For example, we test tensile strength and elongation of various woven and non-woven materials to make tubing for specific purpose.  And we apply systematic methodology to selecting fabrics for coating applications to ensure that the fabric doesn’t fray along die cuts, the gel doesn’t bleed, and the coating stays on throughout the product life.

Our ASTM testing capabilities include:  hardness, specific gravity,  tensile strength, tensile modulus, elongation, ultimate tear strength, compression set, softening point and flash point.

Companies often bring us deficient gels from other suppliers: “mineral-based″ gels that aren’t; coated products that turn gooey or sticky; clear gels that turn brown after a few weeks on a pharmacy shelf.  We formulate and test to solve those problems.

Prototyping modifications and new products
We apply the full strength of our R&D resources to understanding customer objectives and meeting them creatively.  For example, we might investigate visco-elastic materials and analyze a T-GEL alternative to a specified silicone in order to meet a price point goal, then custom-design an injection molding process to handle the production requirements.

We specialize in rapid prototyping.  Turnaround varies according to the needs of the project and the complexity of the tooling, but can be as fast a few days for modifying existing products.  In all cases, centralized control of all phases allows us to optimize timelines for your best advantage.