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Novel approaches to functional polymers for powder bed fusion

Publication Date
July 21, 2023
Creator
Abstract
Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) otherwise known as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing technique, that exploits laser sintering of polymeric particles to achieve rapid prototyping of three-dimensional objects. However, the vast majority (~95%) of the parts are printed with nylon-12 (PA-12); effectively the industry standard polymer. This necessarily restricts the functionality of the items produced; they are usually white or grey and their surface properties are limited; for example, printed PA-12 objects tend to form biofilms and undergo biofouling in wet, food or medical applications. The challenge then is to find an inexpensive, viable alternative that will also work with the vast range of commercial apparatus that the world currently uses. Here we report a simple approach to allow modification of commercially available PA-12 via a facile, clean, and scalable process and to introduce the required versatility, which we demonstrate with coloured printing, colour mixing, and the preparation of PA-12 printed articles that clearly demonstrate anti-attachment properties. Our process exploits supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) and simple free radical polymerisation, and we have demonstrated its utility by preparing 10 unique coatings on commercial PA-12 particles that are then sintered and printed into 3-D objects. We have also modified SLS printers in a variety of ways in order to achieve multimaterial printing and attempt to increase the resolution of SLS printing.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Keywords

Powder Bed Fusion

Polymers

Coloured

Selective Laser Sinte...

supercritical CO2

Subjects (LC)

T Technology::TS Manu...

Associated Schools / Departments
Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (UK)
eprints ID
72894
UoN Repository URI
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Thesis - after minor corrections done.pdf

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Full-text

Description
Examined. EKK Thesis after minor corrections
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12.8 MB

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Name

Thesis - after minor corrections done.pdf

Type

Full-text

Description
Examined. EKK Thesis after minor corrections
Size

12.8 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

ef4e13720adbfd5ec508ec7a2be11931