Parts made for a client. They are now old enough to post in the general public.
It’s really quite amazing for how detailed the Flexible resin can be. These are prorotypes of the “Armour” for a work glove.
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Wow, really cool. Flexible’s definitely the next resin I’d like to try.
How does it go functionally? Did it resist tearing enough for your prototype testing?
I’d be mostly interested in it’s use for waterproof gaskets on electronic prototypes.
It isn’t very elastic, more gummy. It doesn’t snap back to position if you bend a cantilevered beam of it, it goes back very slowly. Order the flexible sample from FormLabs and that should really help you decide.
I think it is better used as a soft touch prototyping material (as seen in Schemelnc’s example), not an elastic prototyping material.
Flexible is a cool material for sure, but probably not a good fit for waterproof gaskets on electronic prototypes. I actually just yesterday gave that a shot.
First of all the support attachment points are large - much larger than the other resins. We are not talking minor pips where the supports attached. I could not get a small gasket to work, even spending a lot of time trying to accurately trim away the supports.
As mentioned above, the material also does not have any memory - it will not spring back.
I really like the material, just think it has some limitations for some of the uses that would be interesting.
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Agreed. The elasticity is not there. This is pretty common for flexible additive materials. Polyjet is the same.
Ah dang! Good to know.
Interestingly I read the data sheet to get an idea of the shore hardness (was expecting around 50A from this thread) but it states around 75-80A. I know hardness and elasticity are different things, but I’d expect better spring back from something in that hardness range. As Schemelnc mentioned, must be a property of most additive flexible materials. Datasheet also states it’s good for gaskets (I’m assuming they’re not talking about functional waterproof gaskets in this case.)
Common elastomers like NBR or EPDM are very quick to regain their shape, and SLA flexible materials take sometimes a few minutes but they also regain their original shape over time. It’s just not “springy”.
Based on my empiric observation of the Formlabs sample, 75-80 Shore A sounds about right. It’s detinitely stiffer than a 50 Shore material.
I have struggled to find use for flexible excellent example of what it can be used for
Hey everyone! Formlabs recommends the material for soft-touch prototyping, but not creating stretchable objects. We have some good details on the page linked below, but I would be interested in seeing some examples from our community, as well.
I made my own custom stamp using the clear resin for the handle and the flexible resin for the stamp.
Files attached. Please feel free to use the handle to make your own stamp.
CE Stamp.form (259.4 KB)
Stamp Handle.form (708.9 KB)
Chris
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