I have an invention idea, that will need to be injection molded out of stretchy material. Not just soft/flexible. it has to have quite a bit of stretch capacity to it for the purpose in mind. It doesn’t have to stand up to extreme heat like an engine gasket… not going to be used for anything like that at all. it’s something that some people might leave in they’re vehicle for long periods of time, so let’s say it could be exposed to -20 F to 110 F temp range. Let’s say it would be a ring, 2 inch inner diameter, 1/8 inch wall, so 2.25 outer diameter. And I want it to be able to stretch to like 3 inch inner diameter. What injection molding materials could do this? I visited a couple injection molding factories in town, but they were not much help. Most of what they make is of harder materials, so I was hoping someone on here could chime in who has worked with these types of materials. They said if I brought in the specs for the mold and materials and they had the ability to do it they would…. They just weren’t experts on such materials.
Thankyou for your time, and hopefully someone can suggest some possibilities.
Jono
TPU is pretty popular for flexible parts since it’s super stretchy and bounces back without getting permanently deformed. Some grades can stretch 200–500% before breaking, and it should handle your -20 °F to 110 °F range just fine. It can be injection molded too, though sometimes you need special equipment because it’s a bit thick compared to regular plastics.
Hi Jono,
Thanks for joining our forum!
If I understand correctly, your post relates exclusively to injection molding. As the inquiry is unrelated to Formlabs, our products and their processes, I have unlisted the post.
If you were actually inquiring about 3D printing materials, please let us know.
Best,
Sophia
for prototyping, i would not be opposed to 3D printing, but on a production scale, especially with TPU as soft as would be needed…. like 65A, it would not really be practical to make my idea in any real scale. I have a Bambu A1 printer that i am using for a few other ideas, but for this 1 with material this soft and as slow as it prints, it simply would not be realistic. i would be able to make like 10 a day of a product that 10000s of people would benefit from having on hand. Eventually, i would like for this to be a product that anyone could go to the department in a big box store and buy the parts they need to fit they’re need… probably assembling the right parts from a selection of like 3x8 part. Has anyone ever tried to print 65A from a typical desktop 3D printer? my buddy who got me started printing said my A1 really is not designed for filament this soft. would love some feedback on this part of the puzzle!