Due to its simple curing and very good mechanical properties, Sylgard 184 belongs to the most widely and frequently used silicones in many industrial applications such as microfluidics and microengineering. On top of that its mechanical properties are further controllable through the curing temperature, which may vary from ambient temperature up to 200 °C; the lower the curing temperature the lower the mechanical properties (Johnston et al. in J Micromech Microeng 24:7, 2014. 10.1088/0960-1317/24/3/035017). However, certain specialised application may require even a softer binder than the low curing temperature allows for. In this study we show that this softening can be achieved with the addition of silicone oil into the Sylgard 184 system. To this end a series of Sylgard 184 samples with varying silicone oil concentrations were prepared and tested (tensile test, rotational rheometer) in order to determine how curing temperature and silicone oil content affect mechanical properties. Curing reaction of the polymer system was found to observe 2nd order kinetics in all cases, regardless the oil concentration used. The results suggest that within the tested concentration range the silicone oil addition can be used to soften commercial silicone Sylgard 184.

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The aim of this research was to evaluate mutual interchangeability of four principally different biometric instrumental techniques designed for objective measurement of changes in the physical, mechanical, and topographical properties of the skin surface treated with commercial antiaging cosmetic products with hyaluronic acid. The following instrumental devices were used: Visioscope PC 35, Corneometer Multiprobe Adapter MPA 6, Reviscometer RVM 600, and 3D scanner Talysurf CLI 500. The comparison of the individual methods was performed using cluster analysis. The study involved 25 female volunteers aged 40-65. Measurements were taken before and after 30 daily in vivo applications of an antiaging preparation to the skin surface in the periorbital area. A slight reduction in skin surface roughness was recorded in 55% of the volunteers. On the contrary, a worsening from their initial states was detected in 25% of the subjects, while for 20%, no significant change was reported. Cluster analysis confirmed that the mentioned methodologies can be divided into two basic clusters, namely, a cluster of methods recording the changes in skin relief by means of optical techniques, and a cluster of methods investigating changes in hydration and anisotropy. In practice, the techniques in different clusters are not interchangeable and should be assessed separately.

Wall slip in the flow of powder injection molding (PIM) compounds can be the cause of unrealistically low viscosity values, and can lead to a failure of flow simulation approaches. Regardless of its importance, it has been considered only scarcely in the rheological models applied to PIM materials. In this paper, an online extrusion rheometer equipped with rectangular slit dies was used to evaluate the slip velocity of commercial as well as in-house-prepared PIM feedstocks based on metallic and ceramic powders at close-to-processing conditions. The tested slit dies varied in their dimensions and surface roughness. The wall-slip effect was quantified using the Mooney analysis of slip velocities. The smaller gap height (1 mm) supported the wall-slip effect. It was shown that both the binder composition and the powder characteristic affect slip velocity. Slip velocity can be reduced by tailoring a powder particle size distribution towards smaller particle fractions. The thickness of the polymer layer formed at the channel wall is higher for water-soluble feedstocks, while in the case of the catalytic polyacetal feedstocks the effect of surface roughness was manifested through lower viscosity at smooth surfaces.

This study is focused on the development of a methodology for objective measurement of changes in treated skin relief using 3D scanning. The results are evaluated using fractal dimension. The output may also include also an enlarged model of the skin surface made by 3D printer, which can serve for illustrative communication with the client.