In the field of 3D printing, why can silicone rubber be applied to medical devices?

Silicone is a kind of polymer elastomer widely used in medical industry. Its greatest advantages are simple composition, safety, reliability and good biocompatibility. Compared with other materials, it has unique advantages: compared with PVC materials, silica gel materials can achieve very soft effects without adding plasticizers; Compared with latex materials, silica gel materials have no sensitization risk; Compared with thermoplastic elastomer materials, silicone materials have more reliable temperature resistance and pressure resistance. At the same time, the silica gel material itself has two forms of solid and liquid, which is suitable for various molding processes and can well meet the complex processing needs of the medical industry.

In the past, the molding of silicone rubber mainly used complex injection molding process: the manufacturer had to prepare the mold first, and then injected liquid silicone rubber into it under pressure. This method is too expensive and only suitable for mass production. Silicone 3D printing has realized a brand-new component design. Silicone 3D printing can cover different life cycles of products, and digital models can be directly converted into physical objects without any tools and molds, thus reducing production costs, saving production time, greatly shortening the process cycle and rapidly improving products during product development; On the other hand, silicone 3D printing can also integrate functional components and prototypes with complex structures.