Quality analysis of material jetted silicone material for soft robotics application

Abstract

Silicone and silicone-based elastomers find their applications in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and soft robotics. Mechanical properties of such materials upon processing them with additive manufacturing are challenging and need significant improvement for enhanced performance in biomedical applications. With extrusion-based additive manufacturing, there is an inherent porosity inside the printed volume which negatively influences the quality and mechanical properties of printed parts. In this study, material jetting a drop-on-demand additive manufacturing technique is used to 3D print silicone samples of shore hardness 60A. These samples are analysed for tensile strength, surface roughness, porosity, and pores characterization for assessing the quality and performance of silicone 60A and the results suggest that silicone 60A material used in material jetting printing process is a potential material for low force application in soft robotics.