The paper reviews processes and materials currently available for rapid prototyping using medical grade silicone rubbers bridging from concept feasibility to pre-production design validation. It starts with an overview of the various forms of medical grade silicone materials, such RTV, HCR and LSR and their properties.
There is discussion of common approaches to rapid prototyping of silicone medical devices based on material characteristics and project goals including potential advantages, constraints and limitations for several prototyping processes including casting, compression molding, transfer molding, injection molding and overmolding. This includes expanded discussion of prototyping overmolded devices including process selection and development, substrate requirements and typical challenges.