SILICONE PARTS PRODUCTION METHODOLOGIES: VACUUM AND MANUAL MOLDING USING PRINTED MOLD.

Silicone is a polymer widely used in industry to produce molds and parts ingeneral. Vacuum casting has been widely used in the production of these parts, as iteliminates air bubbles and guarantees the structural integrity of the final product.However, for initial geometry validation processes, as occurs in proof of concepts, it isnecessary to develop simple methods that do not require high costs. Therefore, thiswork proposes two methodologies for molding liquid silicone — vacuum and in manual— using a 3D printed mold. The methodologies were evaluated considering air bubblesand the finish of the part, the conformity of dimensions and the duration of the process.The results show that the methodologies are useful to produce silicone parts, and thechoice will depend on the level of maturity of the product and the project prerequisites.