RAPID PROTOTYPING SERVICES

Medical Grade Silicones

There are many choices of medical grade silicone for the medical device designer. Medical grade silicone goes through rigorous testing to certify that it is a Class VI Silicone.

Quick Response

The rapid prototyping process developed by our team gives our customers high quality, affordable liquid silicone molded parts in the shortest amount of time possible. We have optimized the tooling process for liquid silicone molding by stocking mold bases, simplifying mold design, and using high speed 3D machining. We can ship silicone molded parts in as little as one business day!

Prototype to Low Volume Quantities

We specialize in molding liquid silicone for prototyping quantities, but we also have the ability to mold short-run quantities until production tooling is available.

Large Silicone Inventory

We maintain a large inventory of liquid silicone from various major liquid silicone suppliers such as Wacker, Nusil, GE Silicones, and Dow Corning. If there is a special grade of liquid silicone that is required we can have it shipped overnight.

Custom Color Matching for Liquid Silicone

Custom color pigment dispersions for liquid silicone are available to match Pantone and RAL color samples and parts. We also stock many basic colors.

Liquid Silicone Bonding / Over Molding

We have extensive experience bonding liquid silicone to a variety of different types of metals as well as certain thermoplastics and silicone. For more information on silicone bonding and over-molding please see our Silicone Molding Design Manual.

Documentation

We will provide certification documentation of material we have used. as well as a copy of the material manufacturer certification documentation.

Our team has developed a micro-machining process that allows us to do 3D CNC machining on a microscopic level. This technology can be used to produce tooling for liquid silicone micromolding. Pictured below is an example of a micromolded silicone component.

Micromolded silicone components on a United States Quarter

Micromolded silicone component next to a grain of salt under 60X magnification

Micromolded silicone component dimensions

Below you will find a case study of a project that we worked on jointly with Frangioni Laboratory.  This is just on example of the many ways in which we use our extensive knowledge of silicone processing along with our innovative and creative problem solving skills to work with our customers to develop new silicone manufacturing processes.  Our rapid in house silicone prototyping capabilities assures the fastest turn around time for developing new parts.

Case Study: Frangioni Labs

IMG thermal transfer

LED array assembly and housing

Problem: Heat dispersion

Solution: Our team was able to work with Dr. Frangioni and his team to develop a process for overmolding LED arrays with a thermally conductive silicone.  This increased the efficiency of the LED array by 25% because the thermally conductive silicone overmolding effectively dissipated the heat from the LED array to the aluminum housing.

Problem: Color coding

Solution: We were able to add a color dispersion to the thermally conductive silicone so that technicians were able to determine the color of the LED array with out having to turn it on.

Problem: Light scattering

Solution: We were able to develop a silicone component that fits precisely over the LED array, that effectively collimated that light emitting from the LED array.

LED array overmolded with thermally conductive silicone	Silicone Collimator	LED array overmolded with thermally conductive silicone color coded

Quality Policy

We strive to create the highest quality products to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations and regulatory requirements, by continually developing new processes for silicone molding, as well as maintaining a well trained staff and continually improving all of our business practices.

Quality System

The Quality System Regulation (QSR) and ISO 13485 require that various quality systems be in place to ensure internal and supplier compliance.  We have established quality initiatives to ensure compliance with federal guidelines. We are an ISO 13485:2003 registered company, staffed with trained, experienced, dedicated and passionate employees who are committed to delivering outstanding customer value by providing rapid silicone molded products and services which consistently meet or exceed customer requirements.  Parts are provided quickly while maintaining high quality standards.

We are committed to continual improvement of our products, services, business processes and our business relationships.

Rapid Silicone Mold Design

Tooling for liquid silicone molding is very different than tooling for thermoplastic injection molding.  Our team is highly skilled in designing, machining, and running silicone tooling.  We have put a lot of resources into developing innovative mold designs that specifically deal with the complexities of liquid silicone molding.  We focus on eliminating, or combining, steps in the design procedure to streamline the "CAD model-to-prototype" process.  In addition, we have a large stock of mold bases and cutting tools to further shorten the lead time.

Small Details and Tight Tolerances

Liquid silicone has the ability to reproduce very fine details in the mold.  This is particularly useful when tight tolerances are desirable. For example, when 3D milling, we typically run end mills that are 1/64" (.015") in diameter, but we also have extensive experience running end mills as small as .005" in diameter to machine fine features.

Special Features and Undercuts

Liquid silicone also has the ability to produce parts with under cuts with out the need for special tooling like that which is required by thermoplastic injection molding.  If the part has special features we use hand pulls and manual slides.  Not only does this make silicone tooling cheaper but it also cuts down on the lead time.

Surface Finish

We also provide our customers with a variety of desired surface finishes.  For example, we can do surface matching, machine finish with no tooling marks, different levels of polished surfaces,  light texturing, and many more.