2026 is officially off to a roaring start! A new year means new changes for most. Some people decide to take up a new hobby, quit a bad habit, or make a lifestyle change. In the world of 3D printing, a new year means new materials. Enter P3 Silicone 25A developed by Shin-Etsu for the Stratasys Origin 3D printers. Silicone 25A is a 3D printable, 100% silicone for the Origin P3 printers: the first of its kind. This new material offers a range of exciting material properties and application opportunities, so let's dive in!
Featuring a Shore Hardness of 25A, as the name implies, and surface roughness as smooth as 3um Ra, this silicone is one of the softest and most flexible on the market. Don't mistake that softness for weakness, though. While this material is haptically pleasing, it also has a tear strength of 16kN/m and an elongation at break of over 670%. Furthermore, Silicone 25A has passed the ISO standard for cytotoxicity (ISO 10993-5) and is pending verification of meeting the ISO standards for Sensitization (ISO 10993-10) and Irritation (ISO 10993-23), making it eligible for certain healthcare applications. Silicone 25A also has rugged thermal and chemical resistance, as well as flame-retardant properties (UL-94 V0), which opens up an even larger horizon of applications.
Silicone 25A is used to create a flexible filter housing.
Some of the best use cases for this new material can be found across the automotive, consumer goods, and healthcare industries. For example, gaskets, soft end-of-arm tooling for robotics, and vibration dampeners are ideal applications for 3D printed silicone in automobile manufacturing. Functional prototypes can be rapidly iterated to find the best design.
A gasket made out of Silicone 25A undergoes a manual stretch test.
Venturing into consumer goods, parts like watch bands, earphones, and handle grips are great opportunities to use a silicone material. User-handled components can be designed, manufactured, and field tested in a very short time period with little upfront cost.
As we cross into the healthcare industry, custom orthotic inserts and wearable medical devices hold great potential for Silicone 25A. Specific products can be made at a fraction of the time and cost based on each patient's individual needs.
With traditional silicone manufacturing methods, design was limited by the available tooling. The advent of 3D printing technology has tossed those limitations to the wayside, paving the road for intricate, organic, and customized designs to be fabricated in a true silicone material. Low-volume, customized products are where 3D printed silicone takes center stage. With molds a thing of the past, the sky is the limit!
Yes! The P3 Silicone 25A material is currently available in Europe and is estimated to be available in the United States at the end of February 2026.