One part, ten, or a few dozen: not enough to pay for an injection mould, too many to accept the stepped look of raw 3D printing. That is where silicone moulds make sense.
Silicone copies everything, defects included
Mould silicone reproduces the master surface with great accuracy, including every layer line left by the 3D printer. A raw print is not a master: we sand it, coat it, sand it again finer and finer, and check it under raking light. It is slow, careful manual work that no printer can do yet, and it is what makes the parts smooth.
We use Smooth-On silicones and coatings. The mould can then take resin, silicone or plaster, depending on the part.
When to choose it
- one-off parts, models, hard-to-find replacement parts;
- functional prototypes before investing in an injection mould;
- small batches of a few dozen parts.
See our project: silicone mould prototypes.
A one-off or small batch? Send us your file.
