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Home Xometry Community Manufacturing 3D printing in silicone

3D printing in silicone

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Hi everyone,  I am looking at developing a silicone product, specifically an armband for a certain sports watch brand. The design is quite complex and it seems as if 3D printing is the best choice for this. I am however not sure if 3D printing can actually produce parts that mimic the properties of silicone. And if not, are there materials that at least come close to replicating these properties?

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Solved by Benjamin S.

I cannot give you a definitive answer because as usual, it depends on a number of factors such as the specific material type, testing standards, method of manufacturer, etc. But in general, these UV-cured elastomers have similar shore hardnesses but generally have lower tear strength and will break at lower elongations when compared to normal silicone.

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      Hi everyone,  I am looking at developing a silicone product, specifically an armband for a certain sports watch brand. The design is quite complex and it seems as if 3D printing is the best choice for this. I am however not sure if 3D printing can actually produce parts that mimic the properties of silicone. And if not, are there materials that at least come close to replicating these properties?

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    • B

       Hi, silicone-like materials are already quite common with standard DLP or SLA-type printers that cure a photopolymer using UV light. These materials are not actual silicone but silicone-like, and by silicone like the suppliers of these materials are usually only referring to the hardness of the material, they will not have the thermal resistance and biocompatibility of typical 2-component platinum cure silicone. I have used these materials and they are definitely interesting because of the complex parts that can be printed using UV cure printers, but I would not use them as a silicone replacement.

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        Benjamin S.

        Hi Benjamin, that’s what I was afraid to hear. How well do these materials behave under cyclic loading, do they behave more like an elastomer or a thermoplastic? Also, how do the general mechanical properties of these materials compare to normal silicone?

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        EnginRuss

        I cannot give you a definitive answer because as usual, it depends on a number of factors such as the specific material type, testing standards, method of manufacturer, etc. But in general, these UV-cured elastomers have similar shore hardnesses but generally have lower tear strength and will break at lower elongations when compared to normal silicone.

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    • D

      There are other methods of printing silicone other than the photopolymer route, these printing technologies are less well known as they are usually used for niche applications. One example is Spectroplast. Their machine prints a proprietary, 100% silicone with properties approaching that of platinum-cured silicone. I did notice that their datasheets do not provide test results for cytotoxicity (toxicity to cells) so maybe make sure before using it for your armbands.

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        Daniel Walsh

        Thanks, I will definitely check them out and make sure to ask them about the material’s bio-compatibility.

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3D printing in silicone
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