Researchers from North Carolina State University are developing a 3D printing technique for silicon paste that is inspired by sandcastles.

Have you ever took a trip to the beach and created a majestic castle out of wet sand? If you have, you know how resilient all of those small grains can be when packed together.

A group of researchers from North Carolina State University are developing a 3D printing method inspired sandcastles. This technique mixes water with solid and liquid forms of silicon to create a 3D printable paste.

How Sandcastles Inspired 3D Printing Silicon Rubber Beads

The research team uses the principles that form sandcastles from wet sand, creating a material that creates flexible and porous silicone rubber structures. The findings could have biomedical and also soft robotics.

This newly developed method is usable in a dry or wet environment, and could even be used with live tissue. The NC State University group equates the material to an ultraflexible mesh that might even be directly printable on some portion of the human body.

Although the properties of this material is advanced, the development of these silicon beads is quite simple. The extrudable material can be placed in a 3D printer and can directly prototype porous, flexible structures, even if it’s under water.

The system uses just two materials, there’s no complex chemistry or expensive machinery needed. Using warm water, liquid silicone rubber creates bridges between tiny silicone rubber beads, linking them together. Just like with sandcastles, a small amount of water can shape sand particles into sandcastles.

Orlin Velev, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, says:

“The ‘trick’ is that both the beads and the liquid that binds them are silicone, and thus make a very cohesive, stretchable and bendable material after shaping and curing.”

The paper, entitled “3D Printing by Multiphase Silicone/Water Capillary Inks,” was published Advanced Materials. 

Source: NC State University