On July 27, 2022, the US research organization Report Oceans, recently published a research report evaluating the growth of elastomers in the 3D printing market, estimating that the elastomer market will reach 1.4 billion US dollars (nearly 10 billion yuan) in eight years. , with an annual growth rate of 22.5% from 2022 to 2030. Healthcare and the automotive industry are expected to be the two major market growth drivers.
What is an elastomer？
Elastomers generally refer to materials that can return to their original shape after removing external force, but elastic materials are not necessarily elastomers. Elastomers only deform significantly under weak stress, and can quickly recover to close to the original state and size after stress relaxation.
They can withstand enormous deformations before breaking, and these deformations are often reversible. For this reason, they are often used in products that can withstand severe shock or vibration, such as automotive tires, industrial moldings, industrial drive belts, prosthetics, consumer products, medical devices, and more. In addition to this, elastomers are also difficult to compress, which makes them the material of choice for making seals.
3D printed elastomers
In 3D printing technology, thermoplastic elastomers are widely used in many industries, including medical, automotive, and even consumer products (such as sports equipment). Due to the impact of the global epidemic, medical protective equipment, protective face shields, etc., have promoted the growth of the 3D printed elastomer market. Among them, silicone elastomers have a huge share in additive manufacturing and will continue to grow.
Future and wider elastomer applications
As early as 2020, A&M University and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory jointly developed a series of synthetic materials with self-healing capabilities. It is reported that the texture of the polymer varies, from super soft to extremely hard. They are 3D printable, recyclable, and stick to each other in air and underwater. Such materials are expected to meet a variety of military applications. Their properties can be fine-tuned for the softness of rubber or the strength of load-bearing plastics. 3D printability and the ability to self-heal in seconds make them not only suitable for more realistic prosthetics and soft robotics, but also ideal for a wide range of military applications such as flying vehicles, and wings that will always be self-healing in the future, and more.
Also, 3D-printed liquid crystal elastomers, developed by the University of California, could make soft robotics and wearable devices more accessible. By controlling the printing temperature of the 3D printed liquid crystal elastomers, they could control the stiffness and shrinkage ability of the material. Also, they are able to change the stiffness of different regions in the same material by applying heat. Liquid crystal elastomers can generate large reversible driving forces and generate large working densities, making them ideal for building new soft robots, wearable devices, artificial muscles, and biomimetic systems in the future.
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