Specialities And Applications Of Liquid Silicone

Liquid silicone (LSR) is widely used in medical, electronic and electrical, food and other industries due to its advantages of heat and weather resistance, non-toxicity, electrical insulation, biocompatibility, colorless and transparent, tear resistance, etc.

Liquid silicone rubber is an ideal material for very demanding applications due to its unique properties, including:

1. Biocompatibility

   After extensive testing, liquid silicone rubber has proven to have excellent compatibility with human tissues and body fluids. Compared with other elastomers, liquid silicone rubber can resist bacterial growth and will not contaminate or corrode other materials. LSR is odorless and tasteless and can be sterilized by a variety of methods, including steam autoclaving, ethylene oxide (ETO), gamma, electron beam, and many other techniques.

2. Durability

   Liquid silicone rubber parts can withstand extreme temperatures, which makes them ideal for components under the hood and near the engine. Parts manufactured by injection molding of liquid silicone rubber are flame-retardant and will not melt, which is a serious problem for parts manufactured by plastic injection molding.

3. Chemical resistance

   Liquid silicone rubber is resistant to water, oxidation and certain chemical solutions such as acids and alkalis.

4. High temperature resistance

   Compared with other elastomers, molded silicone can withstand various high/low temperature extremes. For example, Silastic LSR, which is continuously used by Dow Corning, can be stable in the temperature range of –60°C to +180°C.

5. Mechanical behavior

   Liquid silicone rubber has good elongation, high tear strength and tensile strength, excellent flexibility and a hardness range of 5 to 80 Shore A.

6. Electrical performance

   Liquid silicone rubber has excellent insulating properties. Compared with conventional insulating materials, silicone can work at higher and lower temperatures.

7. Transparency and pigmentation

   Liquid silicone rubber has natural transparency, which is conducive to the production of colorful products.

Application of liquid silicone

Different types of liquid silicone will be cured into solid silicone with different hardness and different properties. Its main uses can be divided into the following categories:

1. Mold silicone

   Mold liquid silicone is a new type of molding material. Compared with steel molds, silicone molds made of mold silicone have huge advantages in production efficiency and production costs. Nowadays, mold silicone has been widely used in toy and gift industry, character reproduction, architectural decoration and decoration industry, unsaturated resin crafts industry.

2. Pad printing silicone

   Pad printing liquid silicone is used to make pad printing rubber heads, mainly used for printing plastic toys, electroplating products, electronic toys, trademarks, and irregular patterns. The pad printing rubber head is to use the pattern on the steel plate as a carrier through the rubber head, and then transfer the pattern on the steel plate to the toy product. The hardness of pad printing liquid silicone can be controlled by adding silicone oil.

3. Electronically sealed silica gel

   Electronic potting liquid silicone is mainly used for potting of electronic products. The use of electronic potting liquid silicone can play a role in sealing, waterproof, dustproof, thermal conductivity, shockproof, and insulation of electronic products. In addition, one is a potting glue for LEDs, which has the characteristics of high transparency and high refractive index.

4. Hand silicone

   Prototype liquid silicone is also called the first version of silicone, hand silicone. It is usually used to make prototype models. Compared with the prototype of slick clay, the liquid silica gel has the characteristics of abrasion resistance and strong resilience after curing.

5. Silicone glue

   Silicone glue is what we usually call glass glue, it is also a kind of liquid silicone. Silicone glue is randomly added with curing agent during use, and it can be cured into a tough solid when it encounters water molecules in the air, so as to achieve the adhesion between the glass gaps. The cured silicone adhesive has the characteristics of weather resistance, vibration resistance, moisture resistance, odor resistance and adaptability to large changes in cold and heat.

6. Clothing label silicone

   After the liquid silicone for clothing signs is cured, we often see silicone signs for clothing manufacturers. The use of liquid silicone to make clothing signs has the characteristics of good hand feel, wear resistance and high production efficiency.

7. Human body silicone

   Human body silicone is a liquid silicone with low curing hardness. It is environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and has no adverse effects on the human body. Therefore, it can be implanted inside the human body, usually used to make prostheses, etc., and can also be used to simulate characters.