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Thanks for sharing. Really interesting stuff. Does anyone know about the stiffness and hardness of the parts? I did see the inserts for rigidity but I still recon it would be pretty rubbery, but I guess I’ve got a limited understanding of silicone.

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PM Mold provides a comprehensive suite of manufacturing services from product design to final shipment to its customers, operating in industries such as automotive, appliances, military, aerospace, electrical, consumer goods, and agriculture.

NewCo Plastics is a plastics manufacturing platform formed by White Wolf Capital to acquire North American plastic injection molding and manufacturing companies. PM Mold will join Hilco Technologies, a provider of thermoplastic and gas-assist injection molding, abrasion resistant hard-coating, and rapid prototyping services, in the NewCo Plastics platform.

It’s only $50, but you need a compressor, vacuum pump, chamber too So it’s more like $200 on top of having a resin printer

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The process relies on the use of printed resin molds. [Jan] notes that this generally necessitates the use of condensation-cure silicones, as additive types don’t cure well in resin molds. The condensation silicone is mixed up, degassed, and poured into a standard cartridge. From there, it’s installed in a silicone delivery air gun, which uses compressed air to force the silicone out of the nozzle and into the waiting mold.

Today, CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP), the eighth largest accounting firm in the United States, announced it helped PM Mold Company (PM Mold) find a new owner.

Overall, the success rate is very high with this method provided you are careful about mixing more than the final volume needed. Mixing does introduce some air bubbles, but for my application it was not an issue.

“The decision to sell the company was not an easy one, particularly since it was a part of our family for so many years,” said Hauck. “There were many objectives — personal, business, and financial — that we were focused on achieving.”

Having the silicone injected under pressure is great for complex mold designs, as it forces the material into all the little difficult nooks and crannies. Of course, we’ve seen other methods for making silicone parts before, too. Be sure to sound off in the comments with your own favored techniques for producing quality silicone parts. Video after the break.

Someone should test many types of 3D printing resin for cure inhibition against both types of RTV silicone. Why, because condensation or tin cure silicone shrinks slightly and after a while begins to break down. If using it to make parts like bumpers, tool grips, and other soft features it’s suitable for prototype work but not for production.

Enclose the mold on all sides, pull a vacuum on the top and introduce the silicone on the bottom. Don’t stop until silicone comes out on the vacuum side.

Founded in 1963, PM Mold was founded by Olav Bradley and Norbert Hauck as a tooling only manufacturer. Today, the company operates out of two facilities in Schaumburg, Illinois with both tooling and injection molding capabilities. Larry Hauck, son of Norbert Hauck, and Tom White, Olav Bradley, and David Bradley were the company’s owners prior to the sale. Larry and Tom will remain partners and will continue to manage PM Mold post-closing.

Addition or platinum cure silicone has virtually zero shrinkage and lasts pretty much forever. I have some molds over 20 years old still making good castings.

You’ve likely seen many tutorials on making silicone parts using 3D printed molds online. The vast majority of these methods use a simple pour method to fill the mold. This relies on careful degassing and gentle pouring to reduce the presence of bubbles in the final result. [Jan Mrázek] has been working on an alternative method however, that allows for injection molding at low cost in the home shop.

But that does not solve the problem of forcing silicone into every cavity of the mold, right? This is what was the original post about and the comment by Fred.

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It’s basically using a bunch of home DIY gear to create a cheap injection molding solution for silicone parts. [Jan] notes that there are a few mods needed to mold design to suit the process, and that 400-800 kPa is a good pressure to inject the silicone at.

In the jewelry world you rely on the porosity of the mold. You expose the whole outside of the mold aside from the top to vacuum and pour the metal in; it can’t go through the holes the air can. I don’t know if this would work as well with silicone.

Ian Sylvan, a managing director on CLA’s investment banking team and lead on the transaction, said, “We knew the PM Mold shareholders were weighing a variety of factors in the consideration of selling their business. We worked closely with the owners to help them meet their financial and non-financial objectives.”

Between baking the resin print, light lacquer coating, and a light rub with regular paste wax ( no citrus additive, it wouldn’t work for me), I haven’t had cure inhibition issues for a good range of resins. I suppose i could have tracked it, but after getting siraya blu working i just kept doing the whole for other resins i used since.

The mold was printed in PLA with a rasied “gasket” on one half where the two parts of the mold meet. This gasket was lightly sanded before assembly to provide a cleaner fit. Some leakage is desirable however to ensure that the silicone fills the mold completely (no risers needed like in metal casting). The mold halves were aligned using standard 4 mm ground pins, and M3 screws with captive nuts placed in strategic locations.

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Joe Baez, managing principal of office in CLA’s Greater Chicagoland region, had been working with the company for more than 10 years and brought in CLA’s investment banking team when they were considering the sale of their business. The transaction was a seamless effort completed with support from CLA’s investment banking, quality of earnings, tax, and outsourced accounting practices.

Another HaD link on the same topic (same person, same parts): https://hackaday.com/2021/08/17/casting-silicone-parts-with-3d-printed-inserts-for-stiffness/

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CLA’s investment banking team advises on the sale of PM Mold Company, a Midwest-based manufacturer of custom plastic injection molded parts and custom molds.

“We wanted to find the right organization to transition ownership to and one that would help us to continue growing the company. The new partnership with NewCo Plastics allows us to meet those objectives, and the role CLA played in getting us here was instrumental,” said Hauck and White.

Try pulling in the silicone using a vacuum instead of using positive pressure. That’s the best way to make sure there are not gas bubbles trapped as the silicone enters. That’s what we did when making items for mems. There we had very small channels we were trying to fill with photo resist and the slightest bubble would block off a channel. So we’d pull a decent vacuum and then introduce the liquid. It didn’t matter how complex the channels were, since the air was removed by the vacuum, the liquid filled every cavity.