3D Printed Seals and Gaskets Components
New Sealing Technology is our passion! It is for that reason that we are supporting the new developments in the field of 3D printed seals and gaskets.
If you observe the developments in 3D printing, this new technology is increasing in importance at a very high speed. Already, many new applications have arisen in a short period of time. What to think about 3D concrete printed houses, 3D Printed 316L Steel Runway Mats for the Air Force or 3D printing for Medical applications. The 3D Technology offers tons of new applications and strong product innovations.
SealTec as your developer of creative and innovative Sealing Solutions uses the 3D Technology to manufacture product samples. Often products can be available within several hours, considerably reducing the normal lead times for rubber moulded samples.
In addition to the reduced lead time, 3D printing also offers the opportunity to construct and design components in a different, innovative way. Where thin and narrow passages are not possible and undercuts require expensive tooling when using conventional production methods, 3D printing does not have these problems. 3D printing offers the opportunity to engineer parts in a different way, e.g. whether it is in complexity, dimension or in weight.
Daily, new production materials are made available to the market. And several of these materials have special grades with approvals (FDA, USP) or special features like conductivity, “light-in-the-dark” or magnetism. A long list of materials can be created, most of them with a rigid “plastic” structure, e.g. ABS, PLA and PET. Next to the plastics, you may find stone-like, wood-like, metal or even high performance PEEK materials.
More flexible, rubber-like materials, are known under the product family name of TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer).
Having said all this, also 3D printing has some downsides. All of the current rubber-like materials find their use up to a maximum temperature of 50-60°C.