Transparent silicone raw materials are ideal for making jewelry items. The silicone molds made not only have extremely low shrinkage, but also can be observed to see if the cast material has bubbles and other defects in order to make timely adjustments. The following is a record of the process of making ring jewelry with transparent silicone for your study and reference.
Tools and Materials
1. Transparent Silicone: the main raw material for making silicone molds.
2. Release Agent: promote the release effect after curing.
3. Ring Model.
4. Aluminum Mold template.
5. Cyanoacrylate Adhesive: fixed ring master model.
6. Vacuum Pump: for vacuum debubbling of liquid materials.
Step 1: Prepare the ring model, clean it and dry it.
Step 2: In order to prevent the ring model from floating after pouring the liquid silicone, the ring model is fixed on the aluminum plate with cyanoacrylate adhesive. Note that after the cyanoacrylate adhesive is cured, pour the liquid silicone (approximately 10-15 minutes), otherwise the platinum-cured transparent silicone will not be cured.
Step 3: Apply the release agent evenly on the ring model and the aluminum mold frame.
Step 4: Configure the silicone in the ratio of 10:1 between part A and part B according to the proportioning instructions of transparent silicone raw materials.
Step 5: Mix the weighed part A silicone and part B curing agent and stir well. Note that the viscosity of transparent silica gel is larger, stirring time should be longer, if not fully stirred, there will be silica gel can not be cured or part of the curing part of the situation is not cured.
Step 6: The transparent silicone has a high viscosity and is very viscous. The silicone mold made without vacuum deaeration will have a lot of bubbles, so we put the stirred silica gel into the vacuum pump for deaeration treatment, because the silica gel in the vacuum pump will be 1-atmosphere pressure will be substantially upward overflow, so the height of the mixing container must be high enough to ensure that it will not overflow.
Step 7: After vacuum defoaming, pour the silicone into the mold to cover the ring model by 1-2cm. If there are small bubbles, we can use toothpicks to dispose of them.
Step 8: Usually the transparent silicone will finish curing at 77℉ temperature for 24 hours, if you want faster-curing speed, you can put it into the oven and bake it for 2 hours at 140℉ temperature and 1 hour at 176℉ temperature when heating up.
Step 9: After the silicone is completely cured, it can be separated and demolded. The silicone has excellent demolding performance and will not adhere to most materials, so the separation is relatively easy. Pay attention when cutting, too much force may damage the silicone.
Step 10: After making the silicone mold, you can inject the casting material to make the ring products, the transparent silicone mold has almost no shrinkage, only about 0.1% shrinkage, by comparing the hair can be found almost identical.