Additive Inn
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Cast rubber wheel

A black rubber wheel ring cast in polyurethane in a mould, with a crisp stepped profile and the flex to bend double and spring back.

Made by
Casting polyurethane rubber in a mould
Tested for
Bending double and springing back to round
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What we brought

  1. In one pour

    The whole profile comes out of the mould

    The stepped lip, the inner band and the small peg on top all cast in one go.

  2. Flexible rubber

    Rubber that bends and springs back

    We squeezed it into an oval and folded it nearly double; it returned to round each time.

  3. Without hard tooling

    Rubber parts without injection tooling

    A casting mould gives a moulded rubber part without the cost or wait of steel tools.

The build

How we built it

4 steps, from the brief to the finished piece. Pick a step to jump to it.

The brief

Step 1 of 4

At Additive Inn, our 3D printing studio in Singapore, we cast small parts in rubber. This wheel ring needed a stepped profile and a small peg on top, in a rubber soft enough to flex and tough enough to return to shape.

Production

Step 2 of 4

We cast the ring in black polyurethane rubber in a mould, which picks up the stepped outer lip, the inner band and the peg in the pour.

The stepped profile and the small peg.

Flex testing

Step 3 of 4

We tested the ring by hand: squeezed into an oval, then folded nearly double. Each time it sprang straight back to round.

Squeezed into an oval, then released.
Folded nearly double, it springs back.

The final build

Step 4 of 4

The finished ring: matt black polyurethane rubber with clean edges, flexible and ready to fit.

Seen from directly above.

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