Printing Silicone

[andrei155]

Hi guys

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with 3D printing commercial grade silicone rubber directly?
No molds. We aren't interested in rubber-like SLA materials either but something more like an extruder dedicated to printing RTV Silicone. I have seen the Discov3ry extruder by Structur3d and as far as I can tell that's the only solution currently available on the market. Which brings me here - has anyone found an alternative?

Appreciate the help and any input!

Andrei

[Davo]

[andrei155]

Cool! I didn't think the Hyrel was able to print Silicone yet as it's listed as "coming soon" under the materials section on their website. I see that their largest syringe is 60cc - can anything be done to extend this? We're looking to print larger parts about 500-1000 mL

[Davo]

That means the specification sheet for that material is coming soon - recommended settings for prime/unprime (advance/retract), print speed, etc.

That video is six months old, and we've been printing RTV for over a year.

We have had requests for larger capacity extruders, but since we move the head around (not just the bed), and the print media for these heads is stored on the head, 10x the mass on the head means much slower print speeds (potentially).

PM me if you would like to set up a skype/teamviewer session.

[ralphzoontjens]

This looks promising.
Is there a machine/technique to 3D print a running shoe sole with such material? Ideally you would want to use multiple extruders to combine different hardnesses in a single part. Does this material come out with a good finish when printing complex geometries, say a 3D lattice structure? I would love to hear your experiences.

[Davo]

No, the RTV Silicones we've tried are all very gooey.

However, there are more expensive UV-cured silicones which may meet your needs.

Figure out what materials you want to use. We probably have a head that will print them.

[awerby]

https://3dprint.com/141718/wacker-3d-printer-silicones/

[Davo]

https://3dprint.com/141718/wacker-3d-printer-silicones/

...they have developed the world’s first industrial 3D printer that uses silicone materials...

Amazing what people will say. I suppose I should notify my industrial and federal users that they have been using our equipment wrong until now.

[curious aardvark]

Currently there are no mature, industry-ready additive manufacturing technologies for silicone rubbers, making the process developed by Wacker a milestone for the 3D printing industry.

And yet the picture just shows an extruder printing fdm style.

Sue the buggers davo :-)
Got to be some copyright infringement going on there somewhere :-)