Liquid silicone rubber molds and solid silicone rubber molds differ significantly in terms of material, process, application, and cost.
| Property | Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) | Solid Silicone Rubber |
|---|---|---|
| Physical State | Liquid, typically two-component (Parts A & B) | Solid, comes in blocks or sheets, typically one-component |
| Molding Process | Casting, mixed and degassed in a vacuum chamber before pouring | Carving/Cutting/CNC machining, or hot-press molding using a compression press |
| Curing Method | Room Temperature Vulcanization (RTV) or Heat Cure (LSR) | Primarily Heat Cure Vulcanization (HTV) |
| Ease of Use | Requires precise weighing, mixing, and vacuum degassing; complex process | Simple to open the mold and can be directly carved; press molding requires professional equipment |
| Replication Precision | Extremely high, perfectly captures the finest details and textures of a model | Depends on machining skill; low precision for hand carving, high precision for CNC machining |
| Hardness Range | Relatively wide, from very soft (Shore A 0) to fairly hard (Shore A 80) | Relatively narrow, commonly found in medium hardness ranges (Shore A 20-70) |
Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) molding.Liquid silicone has made exciting progress in the field of medical implants, with the emergence of new materials providing critical support for designing more complex wearable medical devices, high-precision diagnostic tools, and next-generation flexible circuits. This marks a new standard for liquid silicone in precision medical applications, particularly in high-precision auditory restoration and novel biocompatible materials.
A research team has successfully developed a new flexible thin-film Auditory Brainstem Implant (ABI). This innovation aims to provide an alternative for patients who cannot use cochlear implants due to severe damage to the cochlear nerve. The key to this implant lies in its flexible design. It utilizes micron-scale platinum electrodes embedded in an ultra-thin silicone film with a thickness of only a few tenths of a millimeter, forming a highly flexible electrode array.