Silicone Bending Actuator

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Let’s make a silicone actuator that bends with air! We will make the mold for casting the silicone with a 3D printer.

Video

Preparation time: 50 min
Process time: 60 min

Materials

Tools and Equipments

  • 3D Printer
  • Kitchen scale

Directions

Design Molds

Design the bending actuator’s mold with 3D CAD software. Save as an STL data.
Download file here : Silicone_Bending_Actuator_STLdata

3D Printing

Print it with a 3D printer. There are 3 molds to make the bending actuator.

Mix

Measure equal amounts of Ecoflex 00-30 part A 40g and part B 40g. Slowly mix the silicone with a mixing stick for 1 minute. Avoid brisk mixing movements to prevent from making bubbles. Mix well while scraping the silicone from bottom and side of the cup.

Please check the details about casting here.

Cast

Pour the silicone into the molds. Wipe off the overflowed silicon with a paper towel. Leave the silicon rubber for 10 minutes for degassing. For simple molds, vacuum pumps are not necessary because Ecoflex’s viscosity is not that high.

Wait more than 4 hours. Take the silicone out of the molds.

Mix again

Repeat the “Mix” step. In this time, we measured equal amounts of Ecoflex 00-30 part A 12g and part B 12g.

Attach

Attach the two parts of silicone. Wait more than 4 hours.

Inflate

Inflate it with a air pump.

 
 
 

Downloadable Data

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