Netherlands-based independent 3D printing resin manufacturer Liqcreate has launched Bio-Med Flex, a clear flexible photopolymer resin designed for sterilizable, biocompatible medical and biomedical applications.
This matters because being able to meet this set of requirements in clinical prototyping labs has been quite difficult. Rigid biocompatible resins have been available long enough to become routine in dental and surgical guide workflows, but they handle none of those use cases.
Flexible anatomical models, wearable sensor housings, soft fixtures that deform under load without cracking are some of the examples which reveal a gap that rigid resins cannot fill and that industrial elastomers can only fill expensively, slowly, and usually not in-house.
Liqcreate’s novel Bio-Med Flex was developed as the flexible counterpart to Liqcreate’s Bio-Med Clear, the rigid biocompatible resin that has been in clinical and laboratory use for over three years. Bio-Med Flex has a Shore A hardness of 73, placing it in the range of a firm rubber gasket: soft enough to compress and bend repeatedly, structured enough to hold printed geometry.
Tensile strength is 5.0 MPa, elongation at break runs between 180 and 250%, and tear strength falls between 20 and 28 kN/m. For a desktop-printable photopolymer, that describes a material that stretches substantially before it fails and resists ripping under load, which is the combination flexible medical components actually need.
Meeting Rigorous Medical Certification Standards
The biocompatibility validation is the more consequential part of the specification. 3D printed parts processed through Liqcreate’s specified workflow are capable of passing cytotoxicity testing under ISO 10993-5:2009, sensitization testing under ISO 10993-10:2021, and irritation testing under ISO 10993-23:2021. One thing worth noting is that these certifications are workflow-dependent, not inherent to the liquid resin.
The validated sequence requires two ultrasonic wash cycles in IPA or ethanol, a minimum 60-minute ambient dry, a 10-minute submerged UV cure at 405 nm, and a 120-minute thermal cure at 60℃. That last stage requires a Formlabs Formcure or a unit of equivalent output.
Skip or shorten any of those steps and the part on your bench is no longer the part that passed ISO testing, even if it looks identical.
The resin manufacturer has also provided sterilization data that provides a clearer picture of how the material holds up in actual clinical use. After steam sterilization at 121°C, tensile strength drops from 5.0 to 3.7 MPa, elongation at break moves from 240 to 183%, and Shore A hardness shifts from 73 to 70. At 134°C, the figures are 3.6 MPa, 166% elongation, and Shore A of 75.
The material becomes somewhat softer and less extensible after autoclaving, but the degradation is gradual and, for tools or fixtures going through repeated cycles, a manageable trajectory. Disinfection with IPA or ethanol at 70% or 99% concentration has almost no effect: tensile strength stays between 3.3 and 3.6 MPa, elongation between 231 and 242%, and Shore A varies by only one or two points.
On the hardware side, the resin is compatible with DLP, LCD, and SLA 3D printers operating between 385 and 405 nm, which covers most of the open-material desktop systems in current use, including platforms from Asiga, Elegoo, Anycubic, and Phrozen. Viscosity is 850 mPa·s at 25℃.
Liqcreate publishes validated print profiles on its website and updates them as new machines are qualified, which in practice is often the difference between a material being usable and sitting on a shelf.
OEM possibilities for biocompatible 3D printing resins
For OEM partners, Bio-Med Flex can be re-branded and registered for different use cases. Alongside its branded resin range, Liqcreate also provides a custom development service, offering non-standard formulas for specific applications. Through this service, customers can request the development of a polymer possessing precise characteristics, which impact its printing speed, as well as the properties of the resulting part.
Interested readers can find Bio-Med Flex available in 1 kg units under order number LBMF01000 through the Liqcreate online store or at here. Validated 3D printer settings and full processing documentation can be found here.
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Featured image shows Liqcreate’s new Bio-Med Flex resin alongside 3D printed parts. Image via Liqcreate.