3dp rubbery things

[PeterT]

Any of you 3DP-ers have any knowledge re printing flexible things? By that I mean materials that in the regular world would be softer durometer silicone, urethane, rubber....
Seems like I can find press releases & cool pics, but very few paces that actually do it. Shapeways has a certain material Elastomeric polyurethane (EPU 40) but its a sign-up list. Other vendors seem few & far between. I'm guessing its a completely different printer that doesn't lend itself to the typical plastic spool?
https://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/39479-shapeways-x-carbon.html

 

[Alexander]

It is very difficult to print on a regular 3D printer because the extruder effectively needs to push a floppy string of spaghetti through a straw. It can be done by reducing extruder speed and travel by 80%. Dosen't sound fun does it? There is a whole community 3d printing shoes. They know more than anyone about printing flexible filament in FDM printers.

 

[PeterT]

Thanks that’s what I figured. I can make aluminum molds & use pour in urethane or silicone but in this case the parts are tiny & shelf life on these liquids is pretty short even with gas preservatives. I’ll do some checking thanks

 

[Doggggboy]

Thanks that’s what I figured. I can make aluminum molds & use pour in urethane or silicone but in this case the parts are tiny & shelf life on these liquids is pretty short even with gas preservatives. I’ll do some checking thanks

I have printed a fair bit of TPU filament with my Ender 3, both with the original bowden style extruder and also a microswiss direct drive extruder with no problems at all. The filament I used was from 3DPrinting Canada. It is not silicone style squishy, more like pretty flexible plastic type squishy, if that makes sense. It helps on the bowden style to have a capricorn type bowden tube. Print slow and have the retraction set correctly, usually off or nearly off. There are many different types of TPU, all with different ratings on the durometer scale. Flexion is one of the softest, I think, with 60 Shore A hardness, compared to Ninjaflex at 90