Silicone & Rubber Parts Production With 3D Printing

Low-volume production of soft or flexible parts can be technically challenging, costly, and slow. Many professionals use 3D printing to manufacture rapid tooling for molding and casting silicone parts, or to directly 3D print flexible parts. Desktop 3D printers offer many benefits, including design flexibility within CAD software, high accuracy, easy iterations, and quick turnaround times.

Direct Silicone 3D Printing

Silicone 40A Resin is the first accessible 100% silicone 3D printing material, using Formlabs’ patent-pending Pure Silicone Technology™. Eliminate molding and labor-intensive casting processes and 3D print pure silicone parts in-house, in a matter of hours.

With this 40A Shore durometer material, you can fabricate soft, pliable, and durable parts with a 230% elongation at break and a 12 kN/m tear strength that can withstand repeated cycles of stretching, flexing, and compression.

Learn More

silicone 3D printing webinar
Webinar

Introducing Silicone 40A Resin

Silicone 3D printing applications webinar
Webinar

3D Printing Pure Silicone: Applications and User Cases

Finis goggle
Case Study

How FINIS Prototypes Swim Goggles With 100% Silicone 3D Printing

Silicone 3D printed gaskets
Case Study

3D Printing Helps Dorman Keep Pace with Automotive OEMs

Rapid Tooling For Low Volume Silicone and Rubber Parts

Combine 3D printed rapid tooling with traditional manufacturing processes to produce limited quantities of silicones and rubber parts with a flexible, agile, scalable, and cost-efficient tooling process. You can use 3D printed molds or patterns with the following manufacturing processes:

Injection molding
Compression molding
Casting
Overmolding and insert molding
Silicone & Rubber 3D Printed Parts

How It Works

Design
Step 1

Design

Design your mold in CAD. Depending on the part geometry and design, you can create a compression mold, injection-filled mold, overmold, or eggshell mold.
3D print
Step 2

3D Print

Choose the right resin from our expansive materials library and 3D print the mold on a Formlabs SLA 3D printer.
mold
Step 3

Fill the Mold

Prepare your mold for casting by applying protective coatings and mold release. Then, prepare the silicone material of your choice and fill the mold.
post-processing
Step 4

Post-Process

De-mold and trim the silicone part and post-process it if needed.

Learn More

silicone molding webinar
On-Demand Webinar

How to Produce Silicone Parts With 3D Printed Tools

VItal Auto Automobile
White Paper

Silicone Part Production With 3D Printed Tools

Psyonic uses silicone insert molding to create fingers for prosthetic hands.
Case Study

How PSYONIC Developed a Bionic Hand Using Additive Manufacturing

Dame Products employs silicone insert molding to encapsulate internal hardware for customer beta prototypes.
Case Study

Silicone Overmolding of Customer Beta Prototypes

3D Print Using Materials With Silicone-Like Properties

Replace outsourcing and molding of silicone, urethane, and rubber parts. Formlabs 3D printers and materials offers multiple alternatives to produce complex and low volume flexible, elastic, and durable prototypes and even produce end-use parts in-house in a matter of hours.

Explore the Materials

swim goggles
Soft Flexible Prototypes
Elastic 50A Resin
Wearables, such as straps
Compressible buttons
Stretchable enclosures and casings
Soft tissue anatomy
OXO peeler prototype
Hard Flexible Prototypes
Flexible 80A Resin
Handles, grips, and overmolds
Cushioning, damping, and shock absorption
Seals, gaskets, and masks
Cartilage, tendon, and ligament anatomy
3D printed shoe sole
Elastic Production Parts
Rebound Resin
Production parts
Resilient, springy structures
Handles and grips
Complex gaskets and seals

A Full Suite of 3D Printing Solutions

Silicone & Rubber 3D Printed Parts