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The collaboration centers on a method that lets standard FFF-style printers produce flexible, heat-resistant silicone parts.
By Shula Rosen
Czech-based Prusa Research has enlisted the aid of Israeli startup Filament2 for a new silicone-printing option for its large-format XL machine.
Filament2 designed the toolhead built for the silicone printer.
The collaboration centers on a method that lets standard FFF-style printers produce flexible, heat-resistant silicone parts.
Filament2’s system relies on what appears to be standard filament but is actually a tube loaded with two separate materials.
As the tube travels toward the hot end, the outer shell peels away while the inner components are released and mixed, creating a stream of uncured silicone that can be deposited layer by layer.
When printing is complete, the only leftover element is the emptied tube, while the finished object is a true silicone part.
Enabling that process requires a toolhead capable of stripping the tube and handling the material flow. Prusa’s new Silicone Printing Toolhead performs that mechanical step and is offered as a plug-and-play unit for the XL printer, which can operate up to five toolheads at once and create multiple items.
For the first time, traditional FDM printing can be combined with real silicone printing in a single part, or multiple toolheads can create a single item with different consistencies and parts.
Silicone’s flexibility, strength and tolerance for chemical and temperature extremes make it suitable for components used in robotics, automation, consumer goods and certain medical applications.
The approach also avoids the multistep molding processes typically required for silicone parts, allowing designers to create intricate shapes, internal channels and other features that are difficult to produce conventionally.
Filament2 describes its Liquid Filaments as a way for ordinary printers to handle pastes and two-part materials without pressure systems or syringes. “The printer feeds it just like regular filament,” the company explains, and the tube’s separation leaves behind a clean silicone print.
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