A silicone-based support material eliminates interfacial instabilities in 3D silicone printing

Among the diverse areas of 3D printing, high-quality silicone printing is one of the least available and most restrictive. However, silicone-based components are integral to numerous advanced technologies and everyday consumer products. We developed a silicone 3D printing technique that produces pre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2023-03, Vol.379 (6638), p.1248-1252
Main Authors: Duraivel, Senthilkumar, Laurent, Dimitri, Rajon, Didier A, Scheutz, Georg M, Shetty, Abhishek M, Sumerlin, Brent S, Banks, Scott A, Bova, Frank J, Angelini, Thomas E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical agents
Elastomers
Emulsions
Micrometers
Moisture effects
Moisture resistance
Printing
Silicones
Surface tension
Three dimensional printing
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Summary:Among the diverse areas of 3D printing, high-quality silicone printing is one of the least available and most restrictive. However, silicone-based components are integral to numerous advanced technologies and everyday consumer products. We developed a silicone 3D printing technique that produces precise, accurate, strong, and functional structures made from several commercially available silicone formulations. To achieve this level of performance, we developed a support material made from a silicone oil emulsion. This material exhibits negligible interfacial tension against silicone-based inks, eliminating the disruptive forces that often drive printed silicone features to deform and break apart. The versatility of this approach enables the use of established silicone formulations in fabricating complex structures and features as small as 8 micrometers in diameter.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.ade4441