Figure this might get a little more attention here.

3D Printing
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Figure this might get a little more attention here. Anyone have experience with this?

Originally shared by Anderson Ta

Does TPE bond well with any of the other plastics (ABS, PLA, Nylon, HIPS, etc)? If so, which has had the best results?

Thinking of TPE joints…

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ABS and NinjaFlex stick to each other.

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Sounds like a really awesome idea, I’m interested as well. I remember seeing people mold silicone around ABS parts, but there were mechanical overlaps holding the parts together, not just adhesion

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TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) is a broad name for many elastomeric plastics. There are several different chemistrys commonly used to make TPEs. I have no idea what the chemistry of Ninjaflex or the other common FDM elastomer materials because I haven’t had the time to look into it.

Generally speaking there are not a lot of adhesives that work will with TPEs, especially rigid adhesives. Solvent bonding may be more viable though since it forms joints that result in inter-molecular forces holding the materials together.

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I had to Google TPE, but it sounds like an entire category of plastics which include NinjaFlax, FilaFlax,flexible PLA, etc.

Because this is a 3d printing discussion, I guessed the OP was thinking about dualstrusion of materials rather than gluing bits after printing.

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@Ben_Malcheski , one of the most common tpe’s in industry is santoprene. Santoprene can be glued to almost anything with cyanoacrylate or super glue. But I agree with @matthew_bennett , I think the original thought was dualstrusion.

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@Eric_Moy I was trying to provide something useful for either or. For the above mentioned joints you probably want to look into what materials can be used as over-molds for others. But the first step to that is figuring out what the chemistry of the TPE is. Here is some info about santoprene overmolds. http://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/Chem-English/yourindustry/consumer-products-cosmetics-personal-care-santoprene.aspx

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@Ben_Malcheski , I know that santoprene overmolds to polycarbonate perfectly, as I’m currently making parts at work out of those two materials.