RE: materials

From: Dan Davis (ddavis@theamericanteam.com)
Date: Wed Feb 23 2000 - 15:50:12 EET


Heather,

There is not any RP material that is more clear & flexible than SOMOS 8100 series. The resins are either clear and stiff or white & flexible.

Your best bet is to either 1) make an RP part from your 3D CAD file in rigid material, make a mold from RTV silicone and use a flexible clear polyurethane (PUR) to produce parts; or 2) make the mold from an RP process and then use a flexible clear PUR to produce parts.

The drawback to #2 is that it is more difficult to remove the "stairsteps" from an RP mold than an RP part. Using this method also pretty much dictates that you use SLA (SLS and FDM may be candidates, but I have my doubts) as the other processes cannot handle the moisture, the temperature of the exothermic reaction created by the cure process of the PUR or the resolution is just not good enough. This is just IHMO, others my disagree...

For PUR info, contact BJB Enterprises in California (their tech department is REALLY helpful). I don't know their phone number, but try www.bjbenteprises.com on the web.

Regards,
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: hweiner [SMTP:hweiner@astro.temple.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 4:25 PM
To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi
Subject: materials

Hello,

I have a few RP questions and was hoping that someone could take a few minutes
to answer them. Thank You.

Does anyone know of an RP material that is flexible? I have seen SOMOS but I
am looking for more of a translucent polymer, rubbery type.

Also, is it possible to build a mold in a 3D modeling program such as RHINO
and RP the mold, and then pour my own polymer resin? would that be adding a
step? I want to make a mold of a shape I can only create in CAD.

Thanks in advance.

Heather Weiner MFA candidate
Tyler School of Art.

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



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