ACEO® Introduces 3D Printing With Electrically Conductive Silicone Rubber

WACKER’s ACEO® team presents its latest innovation – 3D printing with electrically conductive silicone elastomers. Recognizing the emerging need of electrically conductive elastomers with high temperature resistance, Wacker Chemie AG developed new materials for additive manufacturing based on its well-established ACEO® technology. The new silicone rubber products can serve temperatures of up to 200°C and provide excellent electrical resistance of 10 Ω cm or higher.

Silicones are used in many applications where electrical conductivity is needed, such as actuators, sensors, generators, heating elements and also advanced applications like cold plasma or printed electronics. 3D printing is the manufacturing method of choice to realize integrated functionalities in only one process step. Freedom of design allows unprecedented product structures. “3D printing with the new electrically conductive ACEO® Silicone enables new-to-the-world applications that could not be implemented until now, especially in modern medical or functional automotive parts”, explains Bernd Pachaly, head of the ACEO® 3D printing project at WACKER. “We added this new silicone option to our portfolio specifically to address unmet needs and to go beyond conventional solutions”. The new silicone rubber can serve applications that need temperature resistance of up to 200°C and provides unchanged conductivity up to 25% elongation.

“We are delighted to showcase a first application of 3D-printed, electrically conductive silicone elastomers at Formnext in Frankfurt” explains Egbert Klaassen, Global Marketing Director at ACEO®. „This is the result of a cooperation between ACEO® and CINOGY®, a company that focuses on the use of cold-plasma technology in medical applications such as wound care. The biocompatible silicone which provides the electrically conductive areas of the PlasmaDerm® therapy device is printed by ACEO®. WACKER and CINOGY® have been working together in the past but this new 3D technology allowed CINOGY® to further advance their application”.

According to Dirk Wandke, Managing Director of CINOGY®, “this is no standard wound care dressing but a silicone-plasma dressing that can be cut to size to accommodate different wound sizes. This is the latest innovation of CINOGY®‘s PlasmaDerm® wound care portfolio based on cold plasma technology. We are excited to have partnered with WACKER’s ACEO® team to further develop this innovative product and plan to use this technology for more applications for different indications.”