When John Holliday and Bill Mull at Zero-D Products in Willoughby, Ohio, set out to make a silicone mold rubber with zero shrink, they had several parameters to consider. First, the rubber had to cure quickly with minimal heat. While most traditional silicone mold rubbers cure at 350°F in 15 minutes per ¼ inch of thickness, 4X ZeroShrink cures as fast as 5 minutes per ¼ inch of thickness at 250°F. “We were targeting those jewelry makers who want to mold carved waxes and resins, so we needed a material that would cure at a low enough temperature,” says Mull, adding that the 4X ZeroShrink Mold Rubber can be cured as low as 160°F, but as high as 350°F for those who prefer to use traditional curing temperatures and rapid times.

The 4X ZeroShrink product is actually an evolution of Zero-D’s Low-Shrink, Low-Temperature LSLT-160, which was the first mold rubber in the company’s line that offered a 7-minute cure (per ¼ inch layer) at 250°F. The innovation with this product is the fact that there is no shrinkage to contend with. “The user has less to think about when trying to calculate what the casting is going to look like,” says Mull. “It eliminates some of the guesswork.”

Dr. Christopher Corti, a London-based consultant to the World Gold Council and an MJSA Innovation Awards judge, says that the lack of shrinkage will help casters improve their processes. “This product should be advantageous to many casters, as its zero-shrink characteristic will make it easier to produce accurately sized castings,” he says.

For more information about this award-winning product, visit www.zerodproducts.com.

Read the entire article in the December 2007 MJSA Journal. Click here to subscribe.