Urethanes are a plastics which can be used in a variety of ways. They come in all shapes and sizes—from super strong and rigid to flexible and rubbery, perfect for nearly any stress levels. Conveniently, urethanes readily accept dies and paint, which makes them ideal candidates for anything requiring a custom color. Being relatively inexpensive to make parts from, Urethanes tend to need nothing more than a cheep mold to make a part. Surprisingly, they do not require heating or heavy and expensive machinery to manufacture parts from.
Imagine you wanted to make a prototype of a part. First you could go the traditional route and spend thousands of dollars on machine equipment to make the part, or you could spend a hundred dollars on some equipment and then twenty more to make a part and behold–you have a part. In addition the first way will take months while with urethanes it can be done in two days. Although each part costs probably somewhere between five and thirty dollars, depending on the size of the part, this is certainly cheaper than investing thousands of dollars in equipment especially if the design changes and you have to invest again. Each time you invest the first way you throw thousands of dollars, not to mention the lost time, while the urethane route is relatively cheap. Eventually you may want to invest in the heavy machinery so that you can reduce the price of the parts, but you don’t want to invest that money until you have a final part.