On July 8, 2019, after the release of ACEO silicone 3D printing, the German chemical group WACKER Chemie announced that it will exhibit a series of new products at the K 2019 exhibition in Düsseldorf later this year.
In addition to materials, WACKER will introduce its new silicone 3D printer ACEO Imagine Series K2, which is said to have multi-material printing and novel automatic control technology.
Christian Gimber, WACKER's vice president of engineering silicones, said: "In recent years, product requirements for plastics and rubber materials have risen dramatically. Some standard materials cannot keep pace with this development. That's why more and more companies are counting on silicone elastic Due to its outstanding mechanical and chemical properties, silica gel has become an indispensable material for solving technical problems and developing and implementing innovative technologies. "
ACEO multi-material 3D printed silicone samples
Silicone 3D printing
Earlier this year, WACKER opened its first ACEO open laboratory at the Silicone R & D Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, providing tutorials and training for customers looking to use silicone rubber for 3D printing. Its proprietary Imagine 3D printer uses Drop-on-Demand inkjet technology, which can add high viscosity silicone polymer materials.
The ACEO Imagine series K2 can print up to four different silicone materials at the same time, can use objects of different colors and hardnesses, and models that require supporting materials. In addition, ACEO's new automatic control technology has been integrated into the system to measure the silicone layer applied for each print operation and compare it to the target value specified in the CAD model.
The program detects any discrepancies and automatically corrects them with the next layer for extremely accurate and detailed 3D printed models. This elastomer model has medical, automotive, electrical, and commercial applications.
In addition to additive manufacturing, in order to improve the performance of electroactive silicone resins, that is, battery cooling for electric vehicles or actuators and sensors, WACKER has improved the ELASTOSIL liquid silicone rubber (LSR) production line to enable silicone component manufacturers to meet requirements.
In addition, the company will launch new silicone additive manufacturing materials at the K 2019 trade fair from October 16 to 23. WACKER CHEMICAL will showcase all its innovations in booth A10 in hall 6.
WACKER Chemical UV-resistant silicone
Knowledge background
Silicone is a kind of polymer elastomer widely used in the medical industry. Its biggest advantages are simple ingredients, safe and reliable, and good biocompatibility. Compared with other materials, it has unique advantages: compared with PVC materials, silicone materials can achieve a very soft effect without the addition of plasticizers; compared with latex materials, silicone materials have no risk of sensitization; Compared with thermoplastic elastomer materials, silicone materials have more reliable temperature and pressure resistance properties. At the same time, the silicone material itself has two solid and liquid forms, which are suitable for a variety of molding processes, and can well adapt to the complex and complex processing needs of the medical industry.
WACKER CHEMICAL is a supplier of silicone materials with a history of more than 70 years. It is also one of the companies that entered the development of silicones very early in the world. WACKER ACEO® 3D printing technology is the world's first industrial-grade technology for additive manufacturing of liquid silicone rubber components. With its unique "drop-on-demand" technology, ACEO® ensures full design freedom for printing highly functional parts while maintaining excellent properties such as high temperature resistance, radiation resistance and biocompatibility of silicone rubber . Silicone rubber components printed with ACEO® technology are widely used in many key industries such as automotive, aerospace, medical, equipment, and mechanical engineering.
ACEO® technology is based on the “drop-on-demand” printing principle. The print head deposits organic silicon micro-droplets (voxels) drop by drop on the working platform, and then the droplets fuse with each other to form a homogeneous organic silicon layer. With each layer of silicone printed, the system immediately uses UV light to cure the entire silicone layer.
By using support materials to produce complex structures such as eaves or holes, you can print three-dimensional objects layer by layer. After printing is complete, remove the object from the work platform and rinse the support material with water. The object is then secondary vulcanized to remove volatiles and achieve the final mechanical properties.
Performance of silicone 3D printed products. The higher viscosity of the polymer means that the thickness of each layer is typically 0.4 mm. Therefore, the printed object consists of four different surfaces: the bottom surface (1) on the work platform, the top surface (2) formed by the last layer, the side walls (3) of the layered structure, and contact with the supporting material Surface (4). To achieve different roughnesses, two supporting materials are used. In principle, after printing is complete, the surface of the part can be coated to enhance its appearance.