TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY: True Silicone DLP Printing Platform

The True Silicone DLP Printing Platform from Los Alamos National Laboratory allows for more geometries in producing genuine silicone parts, gaskets, lattices, prosthetic components or microfluidic devices on an off-the-shelf desktop printer typically required by specialty extrusion equipment. The result is a material whose polymer backbone is built entirely of silicon-oxygen bonds rather than the carbon-based linkages that quietly compromise so-called silicones on the market today. The True Silicone DLP Printing Platform unlocks that capability through a precursor resin and a paired printing workflow that together deliver real silicone parts free of metal catalyst residues, with tunable porosity, geometric complexity and the aging stability that demanding applications require.

How it Works

The platform begins with a printable resin that blends a polymerizable scaffold with a curable siloxane component, along with a photoinitiator and a small amount of a light-absorbing dye to control polymerization depth. A standard DLP printer cures the acrylic scaffold layer by layer to lock the geometry in place, after which the part is heated so the siloxane oligomers crosslink into a continuous silicone network alongside the scaffold. A wash in ethanol, water or ammonium hydroxide then dissolves the sacrificial scaffold, leaving behind a pure silicone object whose polymer backbone consists solely of silicon–oxygen bonds and retains a porous structure where the sacrificial scaffold was removed.

Technology Description

At its core, the True Silicone DLP Printing Platform relies on a printable resin that combines two chemistries chosen to work in tandem: an acrylic component that polymerizes quickly under light to hold the printed geometry, and a silicone component that cures more slowly into the final material. During printing, these two phases remain mixed but separate into interwoven networks, an arrangement that lets the silicone retain the intended shape once the acrylic is later removed. A small amount of light-absorbing dye keeps polymerization confined to the intended pattern, and the resin is engineered to flow and cure reliably on standard DLP hardware.

After printing, the part is gently heated to complete formation of the silicone network, then soaked in an alcohol or water-based wash, sometimes assisted by UV light or a mild base, to dissolve away the sacrificial acrylic scaffold. What remains is a silicone object whose polymer backbone is built entirely from silicon-oxygen bonds, with mechanical properties and a controllably porous structure whose open pores can be accessed after printing to imbue the silicone with new functionalities, for example by infusing conductive or otherwise active materials. The overall workflow is compatible with inexpensive commodity printers and lends itself to scaling through emerging light-based manufacturing techniques, while the same scaffold-and-wash strategy offers a template for printing other materials that have historically been difficult to fabricate by photopolymer methods.

Advantages

• Produces true silicone with a continuous silicon-oxygen backbone, avoiding the aging and chemical-compatibility weaknesses of pseudo-silicone alternatives
• Runs on widely available, low-cost DLP printers rather than specialized direct-ink-write equipment
• Cures whole layers at once, delivering meaningfully higher throughput than extrusion-based silicone printing
• Yields parts free of residual metal catalysts, simplifying regulatory and biocompatibility pathways
• Allows tunable mechanical properties and porosity through resin ratios and porogenic solvent choice
• Extensible in principle to other material systems that currently resist photopolymer printing through the same sacrificial-scaffold approach

Market Applications

• Medical and Consumer Health (prosthetics, wearable devices, soft implants)
• Sensing (stretchable circuits, soft robotics components)
• Microfluidics (lab-on-chip components, custom flow cells)
• Aerospace and Defense (cushioning foams, vibration-isolation components, sealing parts)
• Optics and Photonics (soft lenses, light-guiding elements)
• Consumer and Household Goods (kitchenware, mattresses, apparel components)

Development Status: TRL 4

U.S. Patent No. 11,939,415

LA-UR-26-24892

LANL Tech Partnerships: Unlock the Innovative Potential

Los Alamos National Laboratory offers a wide range of cutting-edge technologies and capabilities that may provide your company with a competitive edge in the market and unlock the innovative potential that can enhance, refine, and revolutionize your products.

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