What would it take to feasible print a silicone filament?
Do these already exists, if yes can they printed with a bambu printer?
If not why, whats holding FDM back from doing so?
I could think of a lot of practical use cases, especially in the food or health industry where 3d printed silicone could become great utilities for.
Hello @Neuffexx , i don’t think there are any silicone filaments. There are some videos of people trying to make silicone filaments out of glue bars, but it is very difficult and expensive. Also, no 3d printed product is recommended for food or health applications, since the gaps between layer lines are great for bacterial colonization, and impossible to clean completely.
For anything like that I recommend using a mold and liquid silicone, it is what works the best and it is 100% food safe.
It is not possible:
FDM printers melt the filament by heating it up until it melts. So the filament has to be thermoplastic. But silicone is duroplastic. It doesn’t melt when heated but instead it just burns when hot enough.
So far the Prusa XL is the only printer advertised as having this ability. Just advertised right now, the toolhead isn’t out yet.
Ah that makes sense, hadnt thought about the layer lines.
Interesting, then how do people make anything with silicone if it cant be melted?
Or can it not just be melted after its final composition?
With liquid silicone and a mold
I did find an article about this, but it mentions working for any and all commercial FDM printers.
Doesnt make much sense to me, might even be fake I dont know, but some companies might be trying to make it?
Edit* I checked the companies website and it seems to be legit, though I have no idea how I would order from them as a user. Since I assume they target B2B sales.
By chemical reaction. There are silicones that need two components to be mixed and then they start solidifying. I think that is what they use for the Prusa XL.
Single component silicones react when exposed to air.
Maybe there are more types, I’m certainly no expert.
I guess that home tools like baking dishes are created by mixing the silicone components, quickly press the liquid into a mold, let the silicone solidify and then remove it from the mold.
With an FDM printer, you could print the molds and create silicone parts in the same way.
Good to know thanks!
I just watched the video on the toolhead, looks pretty cool, I hope that bambu brings out a module for it as well, since they already have swappable modules for the H series.
Yeah it would be great, and I’m checking it all the time. Bambu would need a hybrid hot end that takes 2 filament tubes, cuts them and squeezes the chemical components out in the ratios that determine the hardness of the final silicon - and then melts the filament tube into the waste product. It looks like it would be a bit of engineering and potentially a hot end upgrade, but it would be so amazing.
Wait, from what someone told me there are silicone composits that react to air to start hardening / solidifying.
Wouldnt it be possible to print those?
Since they are encased in a tube anyways, cutting of the end part / pushing it forward as its being de-shelled would give you the material, and when you want to retract it, cutting it off and then letting the end part solidy to keep the rest of the material in the shell unaffected.
The then solidified end part can then just be cut off initially in the de-shelling process when it needs to print.
Of course this entire theory is based on no knowledge of how this works, taking the word from someone online, who said that there is a silicone type that hardens when initially exposed to air.
Generally the ones that react to air are like the kind you use in your bathroom - they remain liquid phase for hours. Gotta pack in the hardener - and likely a juiced up version of it - in order for it to be solid enough for the next layer to print on top of.
Of course eventually we will be able to print silicone, but it still would have the FDM printing system, so it still wouldn’t be food safe