A team of researchers has made a breakthrough in 3D printing materials field by developing a group of 3D printable, extremely stretchable, UV-curable (SUV) elastomers. The new elastomer materials that can be stretched up to 1,100% are being heralded as the “most stretchable” 3D printing materials ever. The elastomer project is the result of a collaboration between researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design’s Digital Manufacturing and Design Centre (DManD), the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). Both DManD and CREATE are funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF). Research findings were recently published in Journal of Advanced Materials titled “Highly Stretchable and UV Curable Elastomers for Digital Light Processing Based 3D Printing.” Elastomers, defined as organic or synthetic polymers with elastic properties, have proved invaluable for a broad range of applications, including the making of soft robotics, biomedical devices, and flexible electronics. However, their use within additive manufacturing has remained limited to some extent owing to the thermal curing process necessary for their treatment. The most popular elastomers, silicon rubber-based materials, have until now necessitated more traditional manufacturing techniques, such as molding, cutting, and casting. There exist elastomer materials that are commercially available for UV light 3D printing as many people know, but those elastomers cannot stretch beyond 200% once cured, a restriction that makes them much less useful for many professional applications. Now, the researcher team has developed a 3D printable elastomer that can stretch up to 1,100% once cured, likely making it the stretchiest 3D printable material ever. According to the researchers, they were able to successfully 3D print complex 3D lattices and structures with SUV elastomer compositions and high-resolution 3D printing processes. No longer tethered by the design limitations of traditional manufacturing processes, the 3D printable SUV elastomers could mean a huge step forwards in many fields that require elastomeric materials. The SUV elastomers have also reportedly shown good mechanical repeatability, making them suitable for use in flexible electronics. This feature was demonstrated by the researchers, who 3D printed a buckyball light switch using the elastomer, and pressed it 1000 times. After the testing, the light switch still worked normally. “Overall, we believe the SUV elastomers, together with the UV curing based 3D printing techniques, will significantly enhance the capability of fabricating soft and deformable 3D structures and devices including soft actuators and robots, flexible electronics, acoustic metamaterials, and many other applications,” concluded Professor Shlomo Magdassi, a co-leader of the research project at HUJI and CREATE.