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| Process | Materials | |
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When
it comes to creating production-like plastic parts, silicone molding,
also known as soft tooling, is still the preferred method. The process
begins with the creation of a master part which can be done via Stereolithography
(SL), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
or a number of other rapid prototyping technologies. The silicone
mold is cut into a core and cavity, and then vents and gates are added
to optimize material flow. Once the silicone mold is complete, cast
replicates can be produced in urethane or a variety of other materials.
Although the urethanes used in the casting process are not thermoplastics,
specific urethanes are designed to mimic their properties.
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- Urethane casting is ideal for insert molding, over molding and complex geometries such as undercuts.
- Ability to conduct functional testing while production tool is being produced resulting in a shorter time to market.
- Urethane castings can be used in market testing to gain valuable user feedback prior to the start of production
- High temperature urethanes (up to 309 F) are available.
- Urethanes range in durometer from 10 Shore A to 90 Shore D.
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