Development is moving forward for 3D printing of liquid silicone rubber

BURGHAUSEN, Germany—Among the latest materials-related business developments in liquid silicone rubber, ACEO is launching new fluorosilicone versions of its LSR 3D printing materials.

The ACEO business unit of Burghausen-based silicone materials producer Wacker Chemie A.G. makes drop-on-demand 3D printed LSR materials. The company participated in two 3D printing fairs in May.

At the 3D Print exhibition in Lyon, France, ACEO launched a new fluorosilicone version of its LSR 3D printing materials, displaying the first fluorosilicone sample parts at the fair.

Bernd Pachaly, who heads up the ACEO unit, said: "This is only the beginning of a series of novel materials for ACEO silicone 3D printing, as we will introduce functional silicones enabling unprecedented functionalities of silicone product designs in the next couple of months."

While exhibiting at 3D Print 2018 in France, ACEO also had a booth at Rapid.tech 2018 in Erfurt, Germany, where it showed 3D printed soft robotic grippers, as customized designs in LSR with hardnesses between Shore 20A to 60A.

ACEO said the digitally fabricated pneumatic silicone actuators "exhibit unprecedented programmable bio-inspired architectures and motions."

The material was already available in Shore 30A, 40A and 60A hardnesses prior to Rapid.tech, in RAL 5010 gentian blue, Pantone 7513C "skin," RAL 9011 graphite black, translucent, RAL 3000 flame red, RAL 9010 pure white and RAL 7001 silver gray versions. The new, even softer 20A material comes in the same colors, but not as a translucent material.

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