A sustainable novel 3D printing of elastomeric products

Abstract

Natural rubber has been in use for generations, from tyres to latex gloves. The mass production of gloves has been done for decades using the traditional dipping process. Similarly to other industrial operations where bulk material processing is taking place, traditional dipping presents challenges on the energy use, wastage of raw materials and customisation. An alternative gloves’ manufacturing process should be able to cope with the existing production volume while also opening a completely new approach that will allow a more flexible, energy efficient system with the possibility of manufacturing more complex structures (multifunctional gloves) to cover new market needs. Here, the additive manufacturing approach was used leading to the development of a novel 3D printing technology for rubber materials, capable of generating freestanding thin elastomeric structures, such as gloves. The sustainable aspect of this work comes not only from the use of natural latex raw material, but also from the significant material and energy reduction in the manufacturing itself. The in-house developed 3D Printer for Elastomeric Products (or 3D-PEP) resulted in the manufacturing of the first ever high-performance 3D printed latex glove which is visually almost indistinguishable to one produced on mass scale. The process demonstrates new level of control over the thickness of the product and production flexibility which is extremely valuable for adaption in difficult times of pandemics or other outbreaks that might require a sudden mass access to high performance gloves.