Why using Liquid Silicone Rubber?
Liquid Silicone Rubber is an excellent solution to consider if you're looking for highly optical clarity combined with long-term durability in harsh environment (high temperature, UV etc...).
Have a look at each feature below to see in details how this excellent combination of optical clarity, durability, design freedom and productivity can match your application.
Optical Clarity
- 94% transmission
- <1% haze
- Abbe number of approx. 50
- Strong color stability
Durability
- High temperature resistance
even above 150°C
- UV light resistance
- Micro-crack resistance
Design Freedom
- Enhance options for part
integration
- Reduce weight in design
Productivity
- Excellent processability for
injection / compression moldability
- Material waste may be minimized
in the coldrunner based LSR
injection process
Outstanding optical clarity of Liquid Silicone Rubber
Liquid Silicone Rubber displays
outstanding transparent properties, as you can see in the following table. It is therefore a right alternative to traditional plastic materials and a suitable choice for applications requiring
ultra clear features.
|
Liquid Silicone Rubber
|
PC |
PMMA |
Glass |
Transmission [%] |
94 |
86-89 |
89-92 |
92 |
Index of refraction (RI) |
1.41 |
1.59 |
1.49 |
1.5~1.6 |
Haze [%] |
<1 |
1.59 |
1.49 |
- |
Abbe number |
50 |
34 |
57 |
39~59 |
Yellowness index |
<1 |
1.0~3.0 |
1.0~3.0 |
- |
Table 1 – Optical clarity properties (2mm) |
By using
liquid silicone rubber, how can you get a very high light output? This material is able to maintain the
level of transmission to 94% over a wide range of wavelengths in both visible and non-visible light. Optical applications require a
good refractive index of the material used in order to display high performance. Liquid Silicone Rubber has a lower refractive index than traditional thermoplastics which allow
improved optical performance, due to lower Fresnel losses.
Long-term durability of Liquid Silicone Rubber
One main advantage of using this
liquid silicone rubber is that its performance will stand overtime and environment has minimized effect on it. Liquid silicone rubber highly resists from harsh environment by having
long-term color transparency and displaying
anti-crack resistance.
By keeping high transparency and transmission level,
liquid silicone rubber is the best solution to consider if your application requires long-term durability.
If you select this innovative LSR, you will not get any micro-cracks in your parts whereas common thermoplastics usually display this cracking.
Get more design freedom with Liquid Silicone Rubber
What if
Liquid Silicone Rubber enabled you to:
- Design a part made of a single complex piece, integrating light and at the same time exceed standard transparent material performance?
- Upgrade to long-term durability even in harsh environment?
This cutting edge technology allows you now to
free your design from usual ties. In summary, what is possible now?
- Design a unique and complex piece by combining different thicknesses
- Create precise micro-structures
- Ease light integration into your parts
- Reduce weight
- Dial-in the level of rigidity / flexibility of your parts
- Develop parts suitable to harsh environments (heat, UV, humidity etc…)
Liquid Silicone Rubber is a source of design freedom because you can generate complex geometric parts and high precision micro-structures thanks to the high process flowability of the material.
Table 2 - Comparison of design freedom
Improve productivity with Liquid Silicone Rubber
Liquid Silicone Rubber is exclusively processed by
injection molding and heat-cured during the molding process. The main advantage of LSR is the possible integration of multiple parts into one, allowing
drastic cost reduction. This material highly boosts productivity by
decreasing cycle time, reducing material waste and using smaller machines.