Buy a full case and the price per unit drops automaticallyRequest a sample
AccountCart0
All ContainersBottlesJarsCaps & ClosuresPumps & SprayersTubs & PailsJugsDroppersTinsTubesAccessories
Industries
Learn
What goes wrong

It did not cure at all

Updated

On this page8
A pour that is still liquid hours later is a different failure from one that is merely soft, and in silicone it has a specific name.

Silicone: inhibition

Certain materials stop silicone curing where they touch it: sulfur-bearing clays, latex, some adhesives, some uncured resins. The bulk cures and the contact surface stays liquid, which ruins the surface that mattered. Platinum systems are much more prone to it than tin.

Which is why you test first

Curing a small amount against the master before committing the full pour costs minutes and catches this before it destroys both the silicone and the model. It is standard practice and routinely skipped.

Resin: too cold

Below the product’s minimum temperature the reaction can stall entirely. An unheated garage in winter is the usual setting. Warming the components and the space before mixing is the fix, and warming only the mixed resin is not enough.

Or a part was never added

It sounds unlikely and it happens, usually when something interrupts a pour. A liquid that never changed at all, rather than one that thickened and stopped, points this way.

Or the material is old

Resin and especially hardener have a shelf life, and hardener that has been open and exposed to air can lose activity. Date your containers when you open them, which costs a pen stroke.

Clean up as uncured chemical

A pour that never cured is liquid resin, not a solid object. It is waste with rules attached and it is an exposure while you deal with it, so gloves and ventilation apply to the cleanup as much as to the pour.

Save the failed piece until you know why

It is the evidence. A liquid that never thickened, one that gelled and stopped, and one that cured everywhere except one face are three different diagnoses, and throwing it away before looking properly loses the only record of which it was.

References

29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard Communication. Paragraph (f) sets what a shipped container must carry: product identifier, signal word, hazard statements, pictograms, precautionary statements and the name, US address and US telephone number of the responsible party. Paragraph (g) requires a safety data sheet, in sixteen numbered sections. law.cornell.edu
16 CFR 1500.3, definitions under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, which reaches products sold to consumers. A hazardous substance includes a “strong sensitizer”, defined as “a substance which will cause on normal living tissue through an allergic or photodynamic process a hypersensitivity which becomes evident on reapplication of the same substance.” law.cornell.edu
Written from federal regulation and published safety guidance, not from a laboratory. Epoxy sensitization is permanent and cumulative, and nothing here is a substitute for the safety data sheet for the specific product you are using or for a conversation with your state about what you may sell. Read the SDS for your resin, not a summary of somebody else’s.