3D Printing Material Brings New Way to Make Soft-touch Parts
Build Material Provides Lowest Durometer Fused Filament Fabrication Prints on the Market
Posted on June 20, 2023
Prescott, Wis. — Infinite Materials Solutions, LLC (Infinite™), an innovative portfolio of additive manufacturing products powered by Interfacial Consultants, has recently launched Caverna™ Soft Touch (ST), a professional-grade elastomeric material. It prints lightweight parts that become soft, spongy, springy, and pliable, ideal for printing shoe parts, sporting goods, medical devices, automotive parts, and other cushioning components. The material features a new approach to creating soft-touch parts through a post-print water soak, giving manufacturers the freedom to create design variations without retooling machinery or cutting new molds.
Caverna ST addresses several issues that often accompany other soft touch materials. Unlike current elastomer filaments, Caverna ST filament is rigid, enabling excellent print quality in any standard filament printer, including those with Bowden extruders. Existing methods for creating soft-touch parts like injection molding limit your ability to customize and iterate. As a fused filament fabrication material, Caverna ST removes those challenges—and allows the ability to setup several printers in a small space.
“What we’re most excited about with Caverna Soft Touch is the way it revolutionizes how soft touch prints can be used,” says Jon Farren, Materials Research Chemist at Interfacial. “Caverna ST brings precision, reliability, and print fidelity that won't string, slump, bunch, or clog to professional applications.”
Caverna ST joins Infinite’s line of disruptive materials: AquaSys® 120, 180, and General Purpose (GP), water-soluble support filaments, and Caverna™ PP, a polypropylene build material with a water-soluble, co-continuous, microporous morphology.
About Infinite Material Solutions, LLC
Infinite Material Solutions, LLC is an innovation house, based in Prescott, Wisconsin, USA, that develops wholly unique materials for additive manufacturing. The company was founded as a joint venture between Nagase America, a multinational manufacturer-distributor of raw materials and specialty chemicals, and Interfacial Solutions, a Wisconsin-based firm focused on creating highly differentiated technology platforms. Since Nagase acquired Interfacial Solutions in 2020, Infinite Material Solutions has benefitted from greater access to the immense resources of all parties involved.