3D Printing. Silicone.

Real Silicone. Strength & Durability.

Our Silicone 3D printing is part of our 'Strong and Durable' service and ideal for rapid prototyping, pre production and production parts & models where strength and durability are required.  3D Printing in Silicone gives your parts:

• Good surface finish.
• Aesthetically pleasing look and feel.
• Wall thicknesses and Individual details down to 1mm 
• High levels of accuracy & dimensional stability. DIN ISO 2768-1 v in the X-Y.
• Strength & Durability with robust material properties.
• Build volume (max part size): 1000cm³ by volume, design geometry depending.
• UV and Weather resistant. 

Our Silicone 3d printing uses a layer height of 300 to 400um. Horizontal top surfaces are smooth and glossy while areas which are in contact with support material or the build platform have a matt finish.  Curved features may show some stepping. Take a look at the images below as representative examples. 

Where you do have enclosed volumes, the soluble support technology requires small exit holes to allow support removal.  

Silicones offer good electrical resistance properties but we can also offer a conductive silicone. 

Colour and Clear.

3D-Printed silicone is available in a range of colours:  White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Mushroom, Blue, Green, Grey and Black.   

Elements with different individual colours and Shore A values can be combined in a build.  

The Clear or Transparent Silicone gives excellent transparency and is an ideal material for research applications where you need to be able to see through the design.

Anatomical and Haptic models

Our Silicone materials simulate soft tissue which makes them an ideal choice for medical training models and applications.  

We can supply a range of standard models including a "Branched Blood Vessel", "Aortic Arch", "Aortic Valve" and "Tricuspid Valve".  The models can be elastically deformed, cut and sutured during surgical training and education. 

Silicone. Material Properties.

Key properties for our Silicone 3D Printed material:

• Silicone material built in 0.3 to 0.4mm layers.
• Temperature Range of -50 to 180°c.
• Elongation at Break 200 - 800%
• Tear Strength - 15-25 N/mm
• Shore A Values: Choose Shore A = 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60
• Typical accuracy +/- 0.1mm depending on design, geometry and build orientation.  
• Colours: Range of colours are available including transparent. 
• Biocompatibility according to ISO10993 and USP Class VI
• Build Volume: upto 1000cm³ part volume, design geometry depending. 

Values depend on the Shore A value selected.

Click to download the 3D-Printing in silicone datasheet. Indicative values for Shore A=40

Preferred file formats:   STL or STEP  (If multi colour, please name individual STL files appropriately) 

Design Guide

Design considerations for silicone 3d printing:

• Wall Thickness:  ≥1mm
• Gaps, Spacings: ≥1mm
• Holes: ≥ 1mm Ø (Horizontal and Vertical)
• Outlet hole(s) for support material: ≥ 2mm Ø
• Minimum Part volume: 1cm³
• Support technology: Wash away. 
• Angular designs form better than tapered designs. ie, shallow draft angles are not required. 

Examples of work. Silicone.

Silicone Mesh.

An example of a silicone mesh 3d printing in Black.

Silicone seal.

A seal design in Blue 3d-printed in true silicone.

Nozzle

A close up of a nozzel design 3d-printed in blue silicone which gives a good idea of the surface finish produced by the process.

Clear silicone

A cap \ seal design on the clear version of our silicone material. The yellow cable tie is sitting under the clear film showing the level of transparency you can expect,.

Silicone End Cap

A nice example of an end cap design which has grippy side features. This one showing the Grey colour. 3D-Printed silicone is UV resistant so a good match for out door applications.

Stepped thickness silicone sheet

This examples shows stepped thicknesses of print in white. The top surface has the characteristic gloss finish associated with this process. The layers are 1.3mm, 0.8mm, 0.4mm right to left.

See more of our work..