Standard 3D-printing resins are often brittle. Quite some users are adding a bit of flexible resin into their standard resin to get a tough material. In this article we explain what happens when you mix resins and also what kind of flexible materials are available.
How do i make resin prints more flexible?
It is possible to make resin prints more flexible. When mixing small percentages of high-elongation (flexible / elastic / soft) resin into a rigid resin, you can adjust the properties. In this article we have mixed Tough-X with Strong-X. Strong-X is an extremely strong and quite rigid material while Tough-X is a high elongation tough material. The properties of the mixed resin can be found in the image below.
Mechanical properties of Tough-X and Strong-X when mixed. From left to right there is 100% Tough-X. Each step is an addition of 20% Strong-X, until 100% Strong-X polymer is shown on the right.
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What you can see from the results above, is that most properties show a linear behavior. Except for the elongation. It is very difficult to mix in a softer resin with small percentages in a rigid material and still get a good elongation. If this is of minor importance for your parts, then it might work for your application. For other applications it is advised to go with a completely formulated resin that complies with your requirements instead of mixing.
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Flexible 3D-printing resin for SLA, DLP and MSLA.
If you don’t want to make parts tougher, and want a totaly flexible part. Then it is advised to choose for a flexible resin instead of mixing. Liqcreate has two materials available. Premium Flex is perfect for prototyping flexible parts and has a good print speed on both DLP and MSLA printers. While Flexible-X is a tougher material with similar flexibility for engineering purpose.
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About Flexible-X
Liqcreate Flexible-X is an opaque black photopolymer resin for open MSLA, DLP and laser based 3D-printers. 3D-printed parts from this material have exceptional flexibility and great rebound properties. Liqcreate Flexible-X is compatible with open DLP, LCD, MSLA and SLA 3D-printers in the range of 385 – 420nm. Its low hardness of 55 Shore A and elongation up to 160% makes it perfect for the manufacturing of soft touch and elastic parts for industrial use.
Key benefits |
3D-Printer compatibility |
| ·       High Elongation | ·       Epax3D Series |
| ·    Excellent Rebound | ·    Phrozen Series |
| ·    Good Tear Strength | ·    Anycubic series |
| ·    Durable Soft Touch | ·    And many more |
About Premium Flex
Liqcreate Premium Flex is a translucent turquoise blue photopolymer with great processability and print speed on MSLA and DLP based 3D-printers. 3D-printed parts from this material have excellent flexibility and low surface hardness of 63 Shore A. Liqcreate Premium Flex is easy to use on all open source DLP and LCD 3D-printers in the range of 385 – 420nm. Its high elongation and low Shore A hardness makes it perfect for diversity of soft touch and elastic prototypes.
Key benefits |
3D-Printer compatibility |
| ·       High Elongation | ·       Anycubic Series |
| ·    Soft touch | ·    Elegoo Series |
| ·       Easy to print | ·    Phrozen Series |
| ·       High flexibility | ·    And many more |
