silicone tube cap metal liner

thingiverse

Many tubes are sold with a metal foil seal that is punctured before use. The problem is the shelf life after the tube is opened. Update: Feb 2020 added a replacement nozzle cap. The manufacturers original tube cap split in half. To get a good fit for the replacement I created an odd ball thread diameter M11.5x1.25 . Scale the diameter of the STL model if it is not correct for the tube you have. This uses an aluminum foil metal liner for silicone RTV tubes and similar tube materials. The solvent used in RTV tubes diffuses through the injection molded plastic screw caps. The thinnest metal foil will stop this and dramatically extend the uncured materials shelf life. For me the worst is uncured Urethane rubber with Toluene, it goes bad in a few weeks. Use epoxy or some other adhesive to attach aluminum foil to the flat print bottom. The PLA/metal liner is designed to tilt slightly about the center ball. Evenly distributing the sealing force on the end of the tube. Included is a disposable nozzle for the tube, it uses an M12x1.25 thread. I don't know how common this thread size is but you can always scale an axis before printing. Finally, PLA works but a filament with less creep deformation would be better. Designed in fusion 360. Printed on a cetus mk2 extended. Happy printing Peter