Silicone Putty
Dow Corning's "3179 dilatant compound" seems to be the basis for Silly Putty and the like. Tim Spencer's putty page has images of the Material Safety Data Sheet:
DESCRIPTION
DOW CORNING ® 3179 dilatant compound is a coral-colored silicone polymer that exhibits high elasticity, high bounce and a unique combination of rheological properties. It offers ease of movement under low mechanical force and yet exhibits excellent resistance to slump or flow when at rest. It is virtually nontoxic and nonirritating to skin or eyes.
USES
DOW CORNING 3179 dilatant compound is designed specifically for the novelty toy market for use by children to bounce, stretch and snap. Its nonslumping characteristic offers an additional dimension to this product. It can be used to mold simple shapes such as cubes, rectangles and pyramids and retain these shapes for weeks, a feature that can expand the scope of this product from the novelty to the educational.
Its ingredients are:
65% - Dimethyl Siloxane, hydroxy-terminated polymers with boric acid
17% - Silica, quartz crystalline
9% - Thixotrol ST
4% - Polydimethylsiloxane
1% - Decamethyl cyclopentasiloxane
1% - Glycerine
1% - Titanium Dioxide
It can be ordered in its straight (coral-colored, like the classic Silly Putty ®) form from Dow Corning in 50 pound units (although you'll need to order at least 100 pounds to hit Dow Corning's minimum order amount).
Silly Putty ® can be bulk ordered in a few colors, in 5 lb blocks (apparently empty eggs can be ordered by the 100 as well).
Crazy Aaron's Puttyworld offers "Thinking Putty" in a variety of colors (some Glow in the Dark!) both by the 1/5lb tin and the 1lb bag, and they offer custom color matching services.
The Silicone Bouncing Putty portal has links to most of these, plus a mailing list and some sculpture pictures.
I also have some retail-bought putty that came in a peanut-shaped container rather than an egg, and which smells somewhat like Play-Do; I no longer remember the brand name and can't ID it. Does anybody know any more about this?
2003-06-21 23:09:00 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Misc::HowStuffWorks
Ben
That was “Nutty Putty”, produced by Tonka / Playskool / Hasbro / Play-Doh in the early 1990s; the trademark was abanonded in 1993.
The only mention of it anywhere on the Playskool website now is a page of cleaning instructions.
YellowLoop.com still has it for sale, or so they say.
2003-06-22 05:57:00