Fire Retardant
These rapstraps are made to order for applications requiring halogen-free and self-extinguishing tie strips.
The material is rated to UL94-V2 at 2mm thickness, and V0 at 6mm thickness.
We are working on V0 at 2mm, but this is hard.
As well as our standard range of products, we have also developed various ties for particular niche applications.
These products are not mainstream items and are generally produced to order. (Minimum order quantities may apply.)
These rapstraps are made to order for applications requiring halogen-free and self-extinguishing tie strips.
The material is rated to UL94-V2 at 2mm thickness, and V0 at 6mm thickness.
We are working on V0 at 2mm, but this is hard.
The food and pharmaceutical industries don't use normal nylon cable ties. They use versions made from special grades of nylon with metallic additives so they can be detected if they fall into the processing lines. (X-ray detection is also a thing.)
But these materials are quite expensive, and rapstrap have been working with a leading supplier of detectable products to develop a waste-saving rapstrap alternative.
This has proved a lot harder than it sounds, since we needed a custom material that contained about 20% metal powder - and that makes it extremely tricky to mould. But we think we're close to a solution, so these should be available very soon.
This modified rapstrap was designed to a specification with advice from the Forestry Commission. We were asked to develop a "fit & forget" tree tie solution that would safely secure a growing tree without constricting it
It therefore needed to expand as the tree grew; it needed to allow the tree to move around in the wind (which strengthens the stem); and once the tree reached a certain size, it also needed to automatically come undone and safely release the tree.
On top of that, it needed to be made from biodegradable material with special "deer-repellent" additives to stop them from eating it.
Apparently there's an issue with standard nylon cable ties failing over time in hot, sunny conditions - such as on solar farm installations.
The standard solution is to use nylon 11 or a fluoropolymer such as PVDF. However, these are both quite expensive materials, and cable ties made from them generate a lot of equally expensive waste portions.
So, rapstrap were asked by a South African company to look at developing a waste-free alternative that would lower the overall cost.
We have therefore been working on a modified i-Tie to make use of polyamide 11 for long-duration outdoor applications
By using premium Nemoto aluminate phosphors, these custom rapstrap i-Ties were made for night-time marking and identification applications.
Once charged up by sunlight, the powerful rare-earth phosphors are capable of putting out a conspicuous glow for up to 8-hours. (The green colour is selected to match the spectral sensitivity of a dark-adapted eye.)
Although these phosphors are expensive, we add up to 10% to ensure our rapstraps are as bright as possible.
As you can see, we like to push our designs in new directions! Below are a few examples of the bespoke projects we've worked on over the last few years. We're always open to working on new ideas, and if you need something specific, please get in touch as we may be able to help out.
These super heavy duty rapstraps (50mm x 600mm) were originally made for the National Grid for temporarily fastening earthing coils on substations.
But the UK production company for a Tom Cruise movie thought they looked a bit futuristic, and wanted a load for set dressing!
Sadly, we weren't able to achieve a proper mottled camouflage effect because the injection moulding process is designed to homogenise the material. So instead we experimented with mixing several different colourants to get as close as we could.
To make the trees bush-out, it's common practice to pinch the top shoot. This is commonly achieved by carefully cutting into the bark, but it's not ideal.
Another way is to put a band around the top to constrict its growth, forcing the lower branches to grow outward and form a nicer, bushier tree.
But getting a tight elastic band into the required location isn't easy, so we were asked to develop a mini rapstrap to do the job.
By using an extra-stretchy form of polyurethane we were able to make something with similar properties to an elastic band, but much easier to fit, and much safer for the tree.
These prototypes were made for a retail display board. They were a slightly wider 7mm design, which made them a little easier to fit & remove for domestic applications.
The design also included a euro-slot through the rapstrap logo so they could be easily placed on standard retail hangers. Unfortunately, we needed to add a barcode somehow, but the labels we tried wouldn't stick - they kept falling off!
So we ended up packing the straps into bags instead, which defeated the whole point of having the integrated euro-slot. But it was a nice idea.