Platinum silicone: The King of Doll Material or Just Another Mediocrity
Posted By SANHUI Team on 14/11/2019
As a manufacturer that has been producing silicone dolls for a long time, Sanhui is grateful for the long-term trust and support of our consumers. This article is dedicated to our loyal doll lovers and peers, as a gesture of our thankfulness.
The only reason that we publish this article is to provide our consumers with some knowledge of materials used in realistic dolls, and so to help you choose wiser.
We were shocked when some of the merchants describe platinum silicone as a cheap type of silicone. Some silicone doll manufacturers even made untruthful and misleading public statements about silicone types without the complete knowledge of material classifications and characteristics. Personally, these behaviors are very irresponsible for consumers. The manufacturing cost of silicone raw materials and the production process of silicone dolls are far different from TPE dolls. When a premium platinum silicone doll is priced equally or even lower than a TPE doll of the same size, would you have faith in purchasing it? Well, some will, because not everyone is an expert in plastic materials. There is never a shortage of lab mice in this world. We have faith that every manufacturer with a sense of conscience and responsibility will stand up to the above behavior. Nowadays, a large group of our doll lovers may be more experienced than us manufacturers when enjoying a doll, but may not have a thorough knowledge of doll-making materials. Not to mention new consumers that are experiencing realistic dolls for the first time. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to share our knowledge in these aspects. We are open to comments and critiques from professionals if we make any misleading statements.
Currently, popular doll materials can be classified into three major categories: TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer), silicone, and platinum-cured silicone. The following paragraphs will introduce different characteristics of each of these materials. But before we start, we’d like to clarify that there are no so-called “TPE silicone” dolls or “platinum TPE” dolls, as misspecified on some other website. It doesn’t make any sense to add the platinum catalyst to TPE. These misspecifications are targeted at consumers who are not familiar with doll materials. These are schemes that have been used by a lot of manufacturers years ago when they use the keyword, “TPE silicone dolls”, to deceive consumers. In fact, due to the high manufacturing cost of silicone dolls, there are only a few manufacturers in China that are truly producing silicone dolls. Silicone dolls not only use more expensive raw materials than TPE ones but also require more advanced technology in the production process. In addition to the cost, silicone materials scrapped during the manufacturing process cannot be reused, since silicone cannot be recycled once cured. Therefore, we would also like to friendly remind our peer manufacturers that do not rush into this material without a thorough understanding of its characteristics. This can easily result in a huge loss of investment.
