From boardroom to end product, your ideas need to come to fruition quickly. The faster you can get a product to market, the faster you can realize profits and results. You don’t have time to wait months or years to get this process finalized. That’s where rapid prototyping comes in, and how Si-Tech can help.
We have been working with companies like yours in a variety of industries for years, with our silicone molding rapid prototyping. Delivering accurate design dimensions in a fraction of the time, our silicone molds more than meet this need.
To that end, we rely on a process called liquid injection molding (LIM), which mixes liquid silicone rubber (LSR) and elastomeric materials as part of a sophisticated industrial fabrication process. Because it’s so versatile, our molds can result in virtually any shape. Unlike the standard reaction injection molding process, LIM doesn’t use pressurized impingement mixing; rather, it uses a mechanical-mixing process.
Why Our Rapid Prototyping?
Our quality prototypes represent more than 95% of the final product! This allows you to quickly show your idea or product at an upcoming presentation, conference, or trade show; you can even use it to fuel a preliminary market analysis study. Not only does our silicone molding rapid prototype greatly reduce your R&D time, it allows you to get your product to the marketplace in weeks as opposed to months or longer.
We accommodate many products, from existing ones that need modification to totally new ones that must be created from scratch. Quite simply, our rapid prototyping gives you a competitive edge that you otherwise wouldn’t have.
Our silicone molding process poses many advantages, from tensile strength and flexibility to chemical and temperature resistance, all backed by higher levels of automation on a 24/7 basis.
The Beauty of Liquid Silicone Materials
Liquid silicone materials bring a high amount of flexibility to the liquid injection molding process, thanks to its high heat and flame resistance. That resistance allows it to easily withstand temperatures of more than 250°C, and as low as -90°C. Silicone is extremely malleable and pliable as well, which can lead to transparency or coloring of your finished product if you so desire.
Whether you’re in the automotive, medical, aerospace, defense, textile, food, appliances or electronics industry, you can benefit from silicone molding rapid prototyping.
Silicones and acrylics are used in the process. A spring-loaded pin nozzle prevents the machine hardware from experiencing backups or clogs. One plunger holds the base forming plastic, and the other contains the catalyst; both are added to the static mixer.
The liquid mixture is injected into a mold and heated to 355 to 390 F. Once hardened, the molding machine produces the nearly-finished part. The materials are brought to their melting point, followed quickly by a cooling period. Only then is the product finished.
The Method
Casting, compression molding and injection molding: these are the three main methods used in the silicone molding process.
First, a mock up is offered to the client, which is basically a representation using handcrafted parts or sketches based on preliminary testing and refinement of concepts. The details are left out of this stage, which is only to show an overall view of the product.
Next, a rough or working prototype is offered, the first step in finalizing materials and coming up with a general form.
Lastly, a functional prototype is made, which is molded into the chosen material predicated by refined tooling to result in parts with dimensional accuracy.
Contact Si-Tech
Si-Tech is proud to be an ITAR certified molding company. ITAR is short for International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and we take that compliance seriously with all our silicone injection processes and products. To learn more about the process and how your business benefits, contact us at 757-887-8488.
