(Jiangxi New Materials Co., Ltd.)|Surfacant Manufacturer

Silicone 3D printer with instant low-temperature UV curing (Jiangxi New Materials Co., Ltd.)

Sterne Elastomers is a silicone materials company headquartered in Cavillon, France. Recently, the company developed a new silicone 3D printer called SiO-Shaping 1601. The material used in this machine is silicone that is 100% UV curable at low temperatures. According to the 3D Printing Alliance, SiO-Shaping 1601’s target customers include medical device manufacturers.

Sterne specializes in liquid and high consistency injection molding silicones and has been supplying silicone products since 1996. According to the company, their new 3D printing technology combines FDM and SLA and can currently produce parts with a minimum layer thickness of 0.25 mm. “We spent a year and a half developing this technology, which can be used to produce products with extremely high precision and extremely complex geometries,” explains Anthony Pellafol, materials engineer at Sterne. Next year, the technology will be able to achieve resolutions as high as 0.1 mm. Sterne believes the process could provide a solution for companies that need a single iteration of a design and those that are not ready to invest in expensive tooling and castings for injection molding.

SiO-Shaping 1601 silicone 3D printer has two obvious advantages. First, UV curing of 3D printed parts is instant, which makes the printing process fast and efficient. Second, curing can take place at low temperatures, meaning small electronic devices such as LEDs can be safely embedded within the print.

(Jiangxi New Materials Co., Ltd.)

Sterne believes that the new resin-based silicon 3D printer is a better choice for their customers than other production methods.

The UV-cured 3D printed silicone parts produced by Sterne are particularly useful to its customers in the medical device industry. Silicone is a highly biocompatible material used to create a variety of long-term and short-term human implants. Urinary catheters, feeding tubes, and many other products can be safely produced with silicone, making the medical field an important target for companies like Sterne. More than 60% of Sterne’s clients are from the medical industry.

Specifications of SiO-Shaping 1601 resin silicon 3D printer:

Maximum build volume: 250 x 200 x 100 mm (L x W x H) Minimum layer thickness: 0.25 mm Hardness: 30 to 60 Shore A Coloration: Translucent (all translucent colors), Opaque (red, Green, yellow, black, etc.), phosphorescence (source: Internet)