Sweeney C B, Burnette Matthew L, Pospisil Martin J, Shah Smit A, Anas Muhammad, Teipel Blake R, Zahner Bryan S, Staack David, Green Micah J
Essentium 3D, 19025 Heatherwilde Boulevard, Pflugerville, Texas 78660, United States.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, United States.
Nano Lett. 2020 Apr 8;20(4):2310-2315. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b04718. Epub 2020 Mar 5.
Material extrusion (ME) 3D printing is a revolutionary technique for manufacturing thermoplastic parts; however, the printed parts typically suffer from poor interlayer bonding, which causes weak tensile strength in the build direction. Many methods have been proposed to address the mechanical deficiencies of 3D-printed parts, but most fall short of a production-ready solution. Here we report the use of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma electrode mounted concentrically around the nozzle of an ME 3D printer for welding of thermoplastic parts. This is the first report of a DBD being used as a non-contact means to induce Joule heating in resistive composite materials. The polymer welding process is accomplished by coupling the DBD with the carbon nanotube-loaded interfaces between the 3D-printed layers. The current passing through the part results in rapid resistive heating of the nanotubes and thermal welding of the interfaces. We show that parts printed with this method have isotropic strength and are equivalent to their injection-molded counterparts.
材料挤出（ME）3D打印是一种制造热塑性零件的革命性技术；然而，打印出的零件通常存在层间结合不良的问题，这导致在构建方向上拉伸强度较弱。已经提出了许多方法来解决3D打印零件的机械缺陷，但大多数都达不到可用于生产的解决方案。在此，我们报告了一种围绕ME 3D打印机喷嘴同心安装的介质阻挡放电（DBD）等离子体电极用于热塑性零件焊接的情况。这是关于将DBD用作在电阻复合材料中诱导焦耳热的非接触手段的首次报道。聚合物焊接过程是通过将DBD与3D打印层之间加载碳纳米管的界面相结合来完成的。通过零件的电流会导致纳米管快速电阻加热以及界面的热焊接。我们表明，用这种方法打印的零件具有各向同性强度，并且与注塑成型的零件相当。
