Liquid Additive Manufacturing (LAM) of Silicone Rubber Components

A new 3D printer technology using Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) has recently been developed to produce soft-elastomers of the highest capabilities through a process called Liquid Additive Manufacturing (LAM). LAM 3D printing techniques bring rapid prototyping to include fit, form, and now functional evaluation of printed "soft" part.

This session presents a validation study of 3D printed parts to that of the injection molded analog thus validating the LAM printer technology. The study is a side-by-side comparison of ASTM slabs three dimensionally printed both in X-Y and in X-Z print configuration to show the anisotropic qualities of LSR in bead-to-bead and layer-to-layer physical property performance. Comparisons of printed, compression molded, and injection molded LSR will be made to establish the analogous performance of printed versus molded.