Liquid silica gel (LSR) is a non-toxic, heat resistant, high elastic, flexible thermosetting transparent silicone, with excellent transparency, tear strength, resilience, yellowing resistance, thermal stability, water resistance and air permeability. LSR is widely used in a variety of industries such as automotive, sports, medical equipment and consumer goods due to its excellent performance, heat aging and weather resistance, moderate viscosity, ease of handling, and high transparency.

Typically, LSR components are produced on a large scale by injection molding on a specific LSR injection molding machine. Due to the time and cost involved in the process, small-scale production and prototyping are usually done by hand using moulds made from model plates, RTV rubber or soft metals. It is difficult to make LSR samples with high accuracy.

With the advent of reliable 3D printers, this conundrum has been solved. Design engineers can build a model of a part and send it to 3D printer drawing software for rapid prototyping. Parts can be printed in a matter of hours at a low cost, in which case engineers can choose to print multiple part designs to achieve the best design. The advent of 3D printing has made it possible to "bring products to market quickly", where months of prototype verification can be completed in a matter of days.

With the continuous innovation of 3D printing technology and the development of 3D printing LSR materials, the application of 3D printing technology to develop the prototype of LSR products has become a new hot topic. 3D printing is cheaper, faster and can make more sophisticated parts.