Phenolic Material Forms: Sheets & Rods

To support both your custom fabrication projects and your in-house manufacturing needs, we supply high-quality Bakelite (Phenolic Paper) and Garolite (Phenolic Cloth) in two primary stock forms: sheets and solid rods. Both are sourced to ensure excellent material consistency, flatness, and straightness, providing a reliable foundation for precision machining.

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Phenolic Laminate Sheets

Our flat, rigid laminate sheets are the ideal substrate for a vast range of high-performance machined components.

• Materials: We offer Bakelite (Phenolic Paper) sheets for superior electrical insulation and Garolite (Phenolic Cloth) sheets for exceptional mechanical strength and wear resistance.

• Key Features: Supplied with excellent flatness and tight thickness tolerances, ready for precise CNC routing, milling, and drilling.

• Common Applications: Perfect starting stock for fabricating insulating base plates, PCB test fixtures, terminal boards, structural supports, and custom-cut gaskets.

• Availability: While we stock standard industrial sheet sizes, we specialize in providing custom cut-to-size panels to minimize your waste and preparation time.

Solid Phenolic Rods

Our solid thermoset rods offer immense strength and rigidity, perfect for turning and lathing into robust, durable cylindrical parts.

• Materials: Available in both Bakelite (Phenolic Paper) rods for non-conductive standoffs and shafts, and Garolite (Phenolic Cloth) rods for high-impact, load-bearing applications.

• Key Features: Sourced for excellent concentricity and straightness, which is essential to minimize vibration and achieve high accuracy during lathing operations.

• Common Applications: Ideal for machining custom insulating spacers, durable bushings and bearings, high-strength dowels, tool handles, and other performance-critical cylindrical components.

• Availability: We can supply standard lengths or provide custom-cut rod segments to precisely match your part manufacturing needs.

Material Properties & Our Fabrication Expertise

Understanding the fundamental differences between our phenolic laminates is key to selecting the right material for your project's success. Both Bakelite and Phenolic Cloth offer excellent performance, but their unique compositions, driven by their reinforcement material, make them suitable for very different applications. Below, we'll dive into the details of each, and showcase our expert fabrication expertise.

Bakelite (Phenolic Paper) Solutions: The Ultimate Electrical Insulator

Known industry-wide as the go-to material for electrical insulation, Bakelite (Phenolic Paper Laminate) is a hard, dense thermoset created by bonding layers of resin-impregnated paper under immense heat and pressure. This composition results in a non-conductive material with excellent structural rigidity, making it a reliable and cost-effective choice for a vast range of electrical and electronic applications.

1. Key Properties & Performance Advantages:

• Superior Electrical Insulation: Offers outstanding dielectric strength and low electrical conductivity, making it a primary choice for fabricating high-voltage insulators, switchgear components, and terminal boards where electrical safety and performance are critical.

• High Rigidity & Dimensional Stability: This material exhibits minimal bending or warping under mechanical load and in varying temperatures, ensuring that your custom machined insulating parts maintain their precise dimensions and tight tolerances over their service life.

• Excellent Heat Resistance: Standard grades of Bakelite perform reliably at continuous high operating temperatures, making it suitable for components near heat sources, such as in transformers, and for creating heat-resistant electrical barriers.

• Good Machinability: Despite its hardness, Bakelite can be precision machined. We employ specialized techniques to drill, mill, and turn this material into complex custom bakelite components with smooth surface finishes, while carefully managing its brittle nature to prevent chipping.

• Chemical Resistance: It offers good resistance to common solvents and weak acids, further enhancing its durability in various industrial environments.

2. Our Bakelite Fabrication Services:

We specialize in transforming Bakelite sheets, rods, and tubes into finished parts ready for your assembly line. Our services are tailored to the unique properties of this material:

Phenolic Cloth (Garolite) Solutions: Superior Mechanical Strength & Durability

When your application demands exceptional mechanical strength, toughness, and wear resistance, Phenolic Cloth laminate (often known as Garolite or Textolite) is the superior choice. Its foundation of woven cotton cloth impregnated with phenolic resin creates a robust composite that can withstand high impact, dynamic loads, and severe wear conditions where paper-based Bakelite would fail.

1. Key Properties & Performance Advantages:

• Exceptional Mechanical Strength & Toughness: Far more resistant to impact, shock, and vibration than paper-based phenolics, making it less prone to cracking or fracturing.

• Superior Wear Resistance: Excellent for creating long-lasting, load-bearing parts like gears, bearings, and wear pads due to its inherent durability.

• Excellent Machinability for Complex Designs: The woven cotton base provides internal support, preventing chipping and cracking during machining. This allows for the creation of intricate parts with fine threads and sharp details.

• Good Electrical Insulation: While primarily selected for its mechanical properties, it also offers reliable insulating properties suitable for many electrical applications that also require high durability.

2. Tailored Grades for Your Application:

We understand that one grade doesn't fit all. We work with a variety of paper-based and cotton-based phenolic grades to perfectly match your project's specific needs. Whether you require:

• Maximum Dielectric Strength for high-voltage insulation, we'll select the appropriate paper-based grade with the lowest moisture absorption.

• Enhanced Machinability for intricate mechanical parts, we'll recommend a fine-weave, linen-based phenolic cloth.

• Superior Impact Resistance for heavy-duty applications, a coarse-weave, canvas-based phenolic is the ideal choice.

• A cost-effective, general-purpose solution, we have standard grades that offer an excellent balance of properties.

Contact our engineering team with your requirements, and we'll ensure you get the right material for the job.

3. Our Phenolic Cloth Fabrication Services:

We leverage the unique properties of this tough material to produce robust and reliable mechanical components. Our services include:

Making the Right Choice for Your Application

To simplify your decision, here is a final summary to guide your material selection based on your primary project requirement.

• ✅If your primary need is for SUPERIOR ELECTRICAL INSULATION and high rigidity in static parts, CHOOSE BAKELITE (PHENOLIC PAPER). 
  It is the industry standard and most effective material for high-performance insulators, terminal boards, switchgear components, and any application where preventing the flow of electricity and maintaining structural stability under compression are the top priorities.

• ⚙️If your parts demand MAXIMUM TOUGHNESS, IMPACT, AND WEAR RESISTANCE, CHOOSE PHENOLIC CLOTH (GAROLITE).
  Its woven cotton reinforcement makes it the clear winner for durable, dynamic mechanical parts such as gears, bearings, pulleys, heavy-duty jigs, and any component that must withstand repeated shock, vibration, and significant physical stress.

• 📏If you are MACHINING INTRICATE PARTS with fine threads, sharp corners, or complex features, CHOOSE PHENOLIC CLOTH (GAROLITE).
  Its superior machinability and inherent resistance to chipping and cracking ensure a cleaner, more reliable, and higher-yield result when creating components with complex geometries, making it the safer choice for valuable and detailed fabrication work.

• ⚖️When you are seeking a COST-EFFECTIVE insulation solution where extreme mechanical strength is not the primary concern, CHOOSE BAKELITE (PHENOLIC PAPER).
  It generally provides a more economical option for high-volume electrical components, delivering excellent and reliable insulating properties at a competitive price point.

Ready to Fabricate Your Phenolic Parts? Let's Get Started.

Now that you have a clearer understanding of the differences between Bakelite (Phenolic Paper) and Phenolic Cloth (Garolite), the next step is to bring your project to life. Whether you have a completed design ready for a precise quote, or you need further technical consultation to confirm the optimal material for your unique application, our engineering team is here to provide expert support. Simply scroll down to our inquiry form or click a button below to proceed.

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NDA available for all projects. We typically respond within 24 business hours.