What's the softest, most rubber-like material Ultimaker can print?

[t-squareddesign 2]

The title says it all. 

I'm looking to print something that is like rubber or silicone for a client. 

 

Even if there's no such filament that soft and flexible, what would be the closest possible filament to work with?

[geert_2 558]

I have no experience with soft filament myself, but from what I have read here on the forum, very soft materials tend to be very difficult to print. Pushing them through the tube and head is somewhat like pushing a rubber band through a keyhole. Doesn't go very well. Oiling the filament, and printing very slow, and a higher flow-rate, do help a bit.

 

What about printing a mould in standard PLA, sanding and smoothing it, and then casting silicone in it? Then you get the real stuff: chemically inert, temperature resistant, and flexible silicone, but with your own custom design. And you can re-use the mould, if well designed. Combines the benefits of 3D-printing with casting real silicones.

 

In the mould design, use good draft (slanted walls), and allow enough room to flex the silicone when removing it. It should not get stuck in narrow areas, as these are hardest to remove. And print slow, cool and in thin layers to minimise layer lines, because they will make it hard to remove the casting. Also sand off and smooth the inside of the mould: this really makes removal easier. In multipart moulds, which I would recommend for complexer designs, be very sure to seal off the seams with wax or plasticine. Otherwise, if you use a slow-curing silicone, it will leak away: it gets into the tiniest pores of only micrometers.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

The softest material among the Ultimaker partner materials have a hardness of 85 Shore A. This is pretty much the limit you can go with a Bowden printer for professional usage. Hobby users might try hacks like oiling the inside of the Bowden tube for printing even softer material.

[Mari 38]

I have printed Ninjatek Cheetah (95A)  and I know Ninjatek Ninjaflex (85A) is also no problem to print with a bowden style printer (without oiling the filament). I don't know if there are softer materials to print!

[davek17 0]

We've tried in vain to print flexible stuff on our UM2+ and UM3.

 

We did exactly what geert_2 said. We printing really nice moulds in PLA in really fine detail. Then we used Silicon just poured into the mould.

 

Actually silicon moulding is super fun. you can colour it any colour, you can get stuff thats easy to use and doesn;t have manu bubbles in it without having to pressurise it first. And a big benefit is that you can make loads of moulds and mould lots of things in one go so it can be really fast.

 

You can use the theatrical/skin silicon that like real life skin and super soft.

 

We later needed to make more comilcated objects, so we just made 2 part moulds that clicked together and were held tight with tape or rubber bands.

 

We made a tonne of bespoke silicon socks for barcode scanners with pistol grips that were abused daily by bad workers!! Did the trick.

[davek17 0]

Oh I was going to add that i've seen a few videos of people printing nice phone cases with TPE or TPU? Seems to print much betteron a UMS3 or S5. Maybe we are at the edge of the capabilities of our printers now?

[Oliveros 11]

I print Ninjalfex with no issues on my Ender 6 which has a bowden style extruder. 

 

30MM/S and 230-240*C with a bed temp of 35-45*C

 

Can't imagine the Ultimater can't do what the Ender can, I've seen the Ultimaker in action and it's impressive.