Hello, I have a 3d model for a bracelet and i want to print them in silicon material. Do you know if i can print it with shapeways? If not is there another way to do it? thanks Haris
The best way would be to print a mold or a piece to make a mold from. I saw recently that this method was used in the making of Iron Man to make Robert Downy Jr. face masks.
You meant silicone I think. Shapeways doesn't have it, but it is possible to print in this material via SLA. There are a lot of 3D printing options that are not actual silicone, but rubber like, Shapeways has one of these options called Elasto Plastic. To make really good silicone objects from molds that you can make with 3D printing you would need a vacuum degassing chamber and a way to pull the vacuum and also to get even better results you would also want to pressurize the mold while the silicone is curing so you would need a pressure chamber and a means for pressurizing it. What these two things do is get rid of all the tiny bubbles that get into everywhere and make your molded object look bad. If you do make molds with 3D printing you can then use the molds to make thousands of copies. One place to learn all about molds and molding materials is Smooth-On.