Showing posts with label MoldGel Alginate SILFREE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MoldGel Alginate SILFREE. Show all posts

Why Alginates are the Best Mold Making Material?

Alginate, a recognized component for various professions and industries, has a special use in life casting. The element is highly employed in the impression-making of body parts. Even though its origin from seaweed might lead to allergies, using good quality products can reduce the odds.

Have you ever heard of alginate? If not, let me start from scratch.

Basically, a naturally existing, palatable polysaccharide found in brown algae is Alginic acid, often known as Algin. It is hydrophilic and when hydrated turns into a gum with high viscosity. Its salts are defined as alginates when they comprise metals like sodium and calcium. It might be yellowish or white color. It can be purchased in various forms like powdered, filamentous, or granular states.



What’s so special about this component?


As alginate absorbs water fast, it can be used as an addition in dehydrated items, like slimming aids, and in the production of paper and textiles. In the culinary business, it is used as a thickening ingredient for beverages, ice cream, and cosmetics, and as a gelling agent for jellies. It is also used to waterproof and fireproof materials. To create a substitute for meat for vegans, soybean flour is combined with sodium alginate.

Alginates are also employed in pharmaceutical processes. Furthermore, they do not interact with reactive dyes and wash off quickly; hence, sodium alginate is used in reactive dye printing and as a thickening for reactive dyes in textile screen printing.

To speed up the healing process, calcium alginate is used in wide-ranging medical goods, including skin wound dressings. It may also be removed more comfortably than traditional dressings.

But, we are still yet to know about the interesting part of its application.

Impression-making in life casting


Well, you reached here; this was the interesting part I was talking about!

For several years, dentists have used alginate as the ideal substance to create dental molds of their patient's teeth. Alginate's ability to be used on skin and its suitability for young people as a hypoallergenic substance is the major factor in the decision to use it as an imprint material. This amazing substance is utilized to create body parts for prostheses, including limb impressions. As a result, sculptors and other artists began exploring the potential of using this mold-building material for their creations.

Although it is one of the safest methods for creating molds and castings of people's body parts, there remains a very slim chance of developing an allergy because it is comprised of seaweed. However, using A-graded alginate like the MoldGel Alginate SILFREE, can reduce the chances of allergic reactions.

Best alginate products for lifecasting


With all the above beneficial factors, it makes a fabulous option for your beautiful artwork creations. Let me present some of the best alginate products offered by the specialists of life casting, EnvironMolds.

  • MoldGel Alginate Traditional Formula
  • Hollywood Impressions SILFREE
  • MoldGel Alginate Traditional Formula
  • BEST BUY - LifeMold Silica Free Alginate
  • Silica free MoldGel SILFREE Alginate
  • MoldGel Alginate SILFREE

If you have been waiting for all this information, I guess you got your answer now. So, don’t lose time and jump right into your first lifecasting project.

Dental Alginate Metamorphosized for Life Casting

Alginate has come a long way from chance beginnings for dental impressions to body molds for life casting. The alginate has to be modified to suit its new application which makes it more versatile as well.

It literally took a world war for alginate to be used as a dental impression material and, ultimately make its way into the world of life casting!

It was during World War II when agar could no longer be sourced from Japan, that the U.S. Navy first started using alginate for dental impressions. Soon regular dentists also started shifting to this natural seaweed material.

History does not record the name of the first artist who started using the same alginate for making body molds for life casting. But it is very much possible that some dentist was hit with a brainwave that the same gooey material that he/she was using on a patient’s teeth can work for taking impressions from the rest of the body as well. A trial or two may have revealed that the alginate captures excellent forensic details, right down to the fingerprints.


The modifications in alginate


Making a mold of a couple of teeth is a quick and simple job. But can the same be extended to bigger and more complicated parts of the body?For starters. regular alginate will set up too quickly to be workable.

But it is not just about tweaking the set time alone. Even the hardness/softness of the cured alginate has to be ideal to deliver the requisite tear resistance. For instance, alginate that is too soft will obviously tend to tear easily, especially when the structure is too thin. Contrarily, if it sets too hard, the strength will actually make it inflexible. The body mold will not come off easily and is most likely to tear when pulled from tight places. Therefore, the alginate formula has to be manipulated to make it strong, but without becoming too hard!

While it is mostly dental firms that manufacture the modified alginate as an extension of their regular product range, EnvironMolds provides a range of specialized alginate formulas – like MoldGel alginate, LifeMold Silica Free Alginate and Hollywood Impressions SILFREE alginate that have been specially formulated for life casting needs.

For instance, the MoldGel Alginate SloSet features an extended set time of 7 to 8 minutes. Additionally, liquid retarders are also available that can be mixed in the alginate to further slow down the set time. This features good tear strength as well. If needed, fiber can be embedded in this alginate to further enhance the tear strength before reinforcing the body mold with plaster bandages. A better option is to use FiberGel E F/X Grade Alginate that features a fiber matrix which not only adds tear resistance and strength, but also allows for delayed casting times and reduces the shrinkage rate. What more can one ask for?

Do check out the complete range of alginate options and other materials available at https://www.artmolds.com

Silica Free Versions in Alginate

MoldGel Alginate SILFREE is considered the healthiest, safest and most environment friendly alginate formula in the market. It is silica free which makes it suitable for use on baby skin too.

Alginate is a simple dental impression material that lends itself well for making body molds. It is a natural material derived from seaweed and considered completely safe for the skin. The powder is mixed with water (in the defined proportions) and applied directly on the body to capture impressions for making life casts.


However, the alginate powder does contain some amount of crystalline silica which is considered a carcinogen. Even though the silica content is on the marginal side, EnvironMolds has developed a special silica free and dust free formula called MoldGel Alginate SILFREE.

This is made with food grade ingredients and is both environment and user friendly. To add to this, it is the only alginate that is fluoride free and lead free as well.

The powder mixes easily to give a smooth, creamy consistency which helps reduce mold voids due to air bubbles. It also yields greater coverage because of the mix ratio of 1 part powder to 7 parts water, (compared to 1:3 ratios for regular formulae). In fact, this has emerged as the highest yielding formula as it gives greatest value ounce-for-ounce.

Apart from the economical factor, the silica free Alginates provide excellent forensic detail down to the fingerprints. The delayed and gradual set time (4 to 5 minutes in MoldGel Alginate Silfree regular formula and 7 to 8 minutes in SloSet) allows a considerably longer window for working with the alginate mix. It further boasts of delayed shrinkage too and the casting time limit is extended up to 24 hours!

Finally, as MoldGel Alginate SILFREE is gentle on the skin and yields a softer set, it is ideal for casting hands and feet of babies and small children.

The formula is available in 1lb, 10lb, 20lb and 50lb packs on the EnvironMolds website, Artmolds.com. Other variants like Hollywood Impressions SILFREE and LifeMold Silica Free Alginate are also available.