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US 12,698,364 B2Granted
Gel compositions with tunable hardness
AssigneeGelSight, Inc.
InventorF. Richard Cottrell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Gel compositions have a tunable hardness controlled by exposure to an external stimulus. Further disclosed herein are methods for making such gel compositions and devices that use such gel compositions. In one aspect, the gel compositions can be used to prepare physical 3-D replicas of the topography of a target surface.
Claims21
A method of forming a 3-dimensional replica of a target surface with a gel composition, the method comprising:
- providing a gel composition on an optically clear substrate, the gel composition forming an optically clear material including one or more thermoplastic polymers or elastomers, one or more multifunctional plasticizers, and one or more initiators, wherein the gel composition is a curable gel composition formed of a soft gel having a Shore 00 hardness between 5 and 80, wherein the optically clear substrate is a rigid substrate, and wherein upon exposure to an external stimulus the gel composition cures from the soft gel to a Shore A hardness of at least 50;
- contacting the gel composition to a target surface with an application of force applied through the optically clear substrate;
- exposing the gel composition on the target surface to the external stimulus to polymerize and/or crosslink the one or more multifunctional plasticizers and to cure the gel composition into a hard gel composition having a Shore A hardness of at least 50;
- and
- removing the hard gel composition from the target surface to provide a topographical replica of the target surface in the hard gel composition.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.