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Wacker awards researchers for silicone-making 3D printing

21 Oct '16

2 min read

Wacker Chemie AG, a globally active chemical company from Germany, has conferred its “Alexander Wacker Innovation Award” on researchers Dr. Frank Achenbach, Dr. Bernd Pachaly, Dr. Maximilian Peter, and Dr. Ernst Selbertinger for their development of a new 3D printing process to produce silicone rubber parts, a milestone in additive manufacturing.

The €10,000 “Alexander Wacker Innovation Award” alternates between the categories of product innovation, process innovation and basic research. The ACEO technology developed by the researchers uses a drop-on-demand method. ACEO Wacker offers services relating to 3D printing with silicone under the ACEO brand.

The printer head deposits tiny silicone droplets on a substrate. In this way, the workpiece is built up layer by layer. The silicone is formulated so that the droplets flow together before the curing process begins, activated by UV light. The silicone droplets and layers thus produce a homogeneous workpiece, which does not differ much from injection-moulded parts. With the aid of water-soluble support materials, it is also possible to make parts with complex geometries, such as overhang materials and internal lattice structures.

The automotive and aerospace industries are currently the main customer sectors for 3D. At the moment, additive manufacturing is growing most rapidly in medical applications. Biomodelling and tailored, customer-specific geometries are particularly promising. In these types of applications, silicones can display their favourable properties particularly well. Silicones are heat resistant, flexible at low temperatures, transparent and biocompatible. They can furthermore be pigmented in any colour and have good damping properties. (GK)

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