Hi maviarab,Maviarab wrote:TPE is hot poured at an extremely high temperature...you cannot use foam, cardboard inserts, whatever else etc etc. It's why they are heavier than Silicone (TPE is also a denser material).
Rather pointless looking at what a Silicone manufacturer does. Until TPE can be poured without the excessive heat,...there is a major hurdle to be overcome in reducing weight significantly.
Of course TPE is hot poured into the mould that is why air containers must resist heat during that operation and most foams are unusable. Amongst other the air pressure Inside the containers may reach 1 kg/cm2. TPE doll factories experimenting with that have found solutions.
The proof is that I own already (bought in march 2018) 2 TPE dolls equiped with a big hollow ribcage and large thigh pipe diameter similar to what realdoll made with foam for their silicone dolls. The manufacturer produce so for example a 172cm TPE doll at 38 kgs instead of 45 kgs.
That easy to enforce weight reduction with only three air containers would be, at purchaser option, a good start for dolls weighting more than 25 kgs..
A TPE doll factory actually experiment more air containers (than featured by the three foam boxes we see on the realdoll picture) on their skeleton in order to produce a 170cm doll (AFNOR SIZE AROUND 40) weighting normaly 50 kgs at around 32 kgs.If successful altough that is not my preferate size and shape I will buy one and review it at TDF.