INDEX 

New Products

1A.   New Dragon Skintm Silicone - 
        Soft, stretchy silicone rubber is ideal for monster effects,
        animatronic skin, orthopedic & cushioning applications,
        and much, much more.

1B.   SMASH! tm Plastic Breakaway Glass - 
         New urethane liquid plastic is designed to shatter on
         impact.  It really looks and sounds like breaking glass.
         Ideal for breakable props for movie & stage productions.

1C.   New Matrix NEOtm - 
           A new gypsum-based polymer casting system with superior
              physical properties compared to regular gypsum products.
         Easy by-volume mix ratio means no scale is required for
         architectural elements, sculpture reproduction or special effects.
         
         

          
               1.  New Products

1A. Monsters At The Door?
              Introducing “Dragon Skintm”.

  A New Soft Silicone With Unique                                         Performance Properties.

As many of you know, Smooth-On products have been used for years to create movie special effects.   Movies that pre-date and include “Jaws” all the way through Harry Potter have used our urethane rubber & plastics, silicones, foams, etc. to create movie magic. 

Two exciting additions to our special effects line are:



Dragon Skintm and Dragon Skintm Q.  The “Q” stands for “quick” and simply refers to the working time and cure time of the material.  They are high performance silicone rubbers that are water white translucent, very soft, very strong and very “stretchy”.  It will stretch many times its original size without tearing and will rebound to its original form without distortion.  

Development Background

Dragon Skin was originally developed for a large-scale animatronics application.  Top Priority - the material had to withstand the opening and closing of the jaws many times (repetitive motion) without tearing or distorting.

Specifics -

•    The Only Difference Dragon Skintm v.s. Dragon Skintm Q is pot life and cure time:  Dragon Skintm  has a 20 minute pot life with a 5 hour demold. Dragon Skintm Q has a 10 minute pot life with a 75 minute demold.

•     Both are mixed 1A:1B by volume, requiring no scale to 
weigh components.

•    Because this material is clear translucent, Dragon Skin can be pigmented with silicone pigments.  You can also pigment Dragon Skin and use it as a paint to apply to cured Dragon Skin. 

•     The material must be vacuumed to remove air bubbles. 

•    You can lower the viscosity using Mold Maxtm Thinner.  This will also make the material softer.

For example, adding 10 parts Thinner per 50 Parts A and 50 Parts B lowers the viscosity from 23,000 cps to 12, 000 cps.  Shore A hardness drops from a shore 10A to a 6A.    

•    We’ve had requests for a thixotropic additive.  Dragon Skintm Q becomes thixotropic relatively quickly and customers report being able to brush the material into a mold with no problem.  Initial tests indicate that THI-VEXtm will work with this product.  

•     Dragon Skin Q gels and cures quickly.  This is an advantage in some applications where cure inhibition might normally be an issue with platinum silicones. 

•      Physical properties can be viewed on the technical bulletin.  

Click here to see “Technical Bulletin”.

What Else Is Dragon Skin Good For?

We’ve seen keen interest from other areas such as the orthopedic industry (makers of artificial limbs) for use as a cushioning material against joints, shoe inserts, etc. 

And like most of our products, customers will find applications for this product that we can only imagine.

1B. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do – No Longer. 

              Introducing SMASH!tm Plastic.

Tension was especially high in the Smooth-On mold room that day.  We were about to carry out the first true test of our new breakaway glass product called “Smash!tm Plastic”.  Joe Domic had volunteered his own unprotected head for the test and was sitting nervously waiting to be hit with a full size wine bottle casting made from the new plastic. 

What Is It?  SMASH! Plastic is a two-component urethane that is mixed 1A: 1B by volume and cures to a water clear solid plastic designed to break like glass on impact.   It Really Works!  The Smooth-On lab did a tremendous balancing act, formulating this product not to be too fragile, but to certainly break on impact.  It truly looks and sounds like breaking glass when smashed.  Broken fragments look like broken glass.

SMASH!tm can be cast solid (for making window panes) or rotationally cast (for making bottles, drinking glasses, etc.) in thicknesses NO GREATER THAN 1/8” (.32 cm).  If using this product for smashing over someone’s head, make sure you observe this thickness limitation or someone could be injured.

If casting solid, vacuum degassing or pressure casting are recommended to help eliminate air voids.  If rotocasting, finished castings will look like frosted glass.  If you want clarity in a bottle casting, better to build a core mold and cast with a 1/8” wall  thickness.

SMASH!  can be pigmented to look like a beer bottle or other color shade using SO-Strongtm tints.

SMASH!tm was initially developed to be used in combination with our Rubber Glass, giving end-users tremendous flexibility.  In an upcoming episode of a “Cops & Robbers” TV show, you’ll see an actor be thrown through a window pane made of SMASH!tm Plastic and finish the fall rolling in crumbled Rubber Glass.  If they allow us, we’ll capture segments of the stunt and put it up on the web.

Oh, Yes.  What happened to Joe Domic’s head during the test?  Joe is doing just fine.

[Move Cursor Over Image to Play Movie]

Click Here to see a technical bulletin.

1C. No Scale,  No Complicated   

           Measurements & A Flame Rating.    

                Introducing Matrix NEOtm

duoMatrixtm NEOtm is a new  gypsum based polymer 
system  that has superior physical and performance properties compared to regular gypsum products.  It is an easy-to-use version of our popular Matrix-G product, with the dry components  (PART A) “pre-measured” for easy measuring and mixing with PART B – latex liquid.  The mix ratio of NEOtm is a convenient 2A:1B by volume.    

NEOtm is easy to use and can be cast solid, laid up by hand with chopped fiber or sprayed.  Fully cured pieces can be painted, sanded, machined and polished.   

Added Bonus – New Flame Rating:

duoMatrixtm NEOtm  can be used to make lightweight pieces that are very strong and water-resistant.  NEOtm is also flame resistant (has passed UL-94 Flame Test and is Flame Rated). 

Applications include making flame resistant architectural elements, reproducing sculpture and special effects.  Vibrant colors are possible by adding pigments.  Metal powders (bronze, pewter, brass, etc.) can be added to give the look of real metal castings at a fraction of the cost.  You can duplicate the look of marble or ceramic by adding inexpensive fillers.

Crushed stone can be added to simulate the effect of carved stone (sand blasting or abrading required).

As with Matrix G & C, the latex component of Matrix NEOtm  becomes useless if it freezes.  This means that shipping this product from mid-November through March is very risky.  Shipping this product on Monday or Tuesday only during the week via UPS or other general carrier seems to work most of the time (so the product doesn’t sit on a truck over a weekend in freezing temperatures), but nothing is guaranteed.

Click Here to see a technical bulletin.  

2B.  Technical Bulletins and               MSDS’s available “on-line”.

Smooth-On webmaster, Scott Davis, has converted the technical bulletins and MSDS’s for many of our popular products to electronic format and they now can be viewed and printed directly from our website. 

Go to the Smooth-On home page and simply click on “technical info” to access.

Did You Know . . .

Bars of Dove Soap come out of molds 
made with PMC-790 urethane rubber!