The extrusion-based additive manufacturing (AM) of moisture-cured silicone elastomer for complex freeform shape is studied. Due to its low elastic modulus and poor shape retaining ability during the layer-by-layer process, silicone elastomer AM is technically challenging. The experiment for extrusion of room temperature vulcanization silicone elastomer is conducted to study effects of air pressure, nozzle size and speed, layer height and distance between silicone lines on the flow rate and cross-sectional geometry of silicone elastomer AM. The COMSOL™ Multiphysics simulation using the level function to track the silicone-air interface is applied to model the silicone flow. Modeling and experimental results of the diameter and flow rate of silicone under the free flowing condition has good agreement and shows the potential for model-based guidelines for AM of silicone elastomers. Effects of the nozzle speed, layer height, and distance between two adjacent lines are investigated and demonstrate the feasibility and limitations of AM of silicone elastomer.
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