Freedonia Weighs In On Liquid Silicone Rubber, a Multifunctional $460 Million Market

According to Liquid Silicone Rubber, a new study from The Freedonia Group, the market for liquid silicone rubber (LSR) is on pace to increase 8.3% annually through 2023, propelled in part by an expanding range of products and applications.

The study is here: https://www.freedoniagroup.com/industry-study/liquid-silicone-rubber-3751.htm

Specialty LSR Grades Are Primed for Strong Growth

In particular, the Freedonia study anticipates sales increases in the following LSR product categories:

• High-transparency grades, which are increasingly specified for new high-power LED lighting technologies used in such applications as automotive headlights, and street and stadium lighting.
• Other specialty grades, including self-lubricating, self-adhesive, and non-post-cure types that can improve processing efficiency by eliminating additional fabrication steps (such as post-curing or the application of coatings or binders).

Growth in these categories (and the LSR market overall) should be quite strong going forward, as processors adopt LSR manufacturing capabilities and more complex molding techniques (including micromolding and 2-component molding); and fabricators come to understand the performance advantages of using LSR.

Medical Market for LSR Will Outpace – & Eventually Overtake – All Other Applications

Speaking of performance advantages, the benefits of LSR – including enhanced purity and biocompatibility when compared to high consistency rubber silicone – is giving it a boost in the fast growing medical market. Rising applications in this sector include:

• Implantable devices
• Wearables that can track blood pressure or heart rate
• New, smaller medical devices that favor more intricate designs and micro parts, as LSR is particularly suitable for forming high-precision molds

For medical device fabricators, LSR also offers benefits like shorter cure times, higher durometers, lower flash, lower curing temperatures, and improved consistency and predictability between lots. Furthermore, it’s a material well suited to automation, which can help limit contamination in cleanroom manufacturing applications.

As of 2018, the medical market still trailed the automotive industry as the leading market for LSR use. However, the Freedonia study expects that to change, estimating that medical end uses will eclipse automotive applications as the largest LSR market by 2023, and additionally outstrip smaller markets such as consumer and baby care, electrical and electronic, and industrial and other.

Contact Corinne Gangloff for an interview with analysts Kent Furst and Carolyn Zulandt.

The Freedonia Group study Liquid Silicone Rubber offers a comprehensive view of the market for liquid silicone rubber, including data analysis of historical demand trends and forecasts for 2023 by product and market. Furthermore, the study provides in-depth profiles of industry leaders, including market share by company and relevant merger and acquisition activity.