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Introduction

This page comprises a literature review of 3D printing with electrically conductive materials. Information is taken straight from sources, as credited.

Search Phrases

• Conductive 3D printing
• Conductive 3D printing polymers
• Conductive additive layer manufacturing

"Rapid prototyping of electrically conductive components using 3Dprinting technology"

• made of plaster-based powder bound layer-by-layer by an inkjet printing of a liquid binder
• impregnated by a dispersion of carbon nanofibers (CNF) in epoxy resin
• Surface resistivity of the model below 800 Ω/sq has been obtained when impregnated by a mixture containing less than 4 wt.% CNF. Volume resistivity of the molded and hardened CNF dispersion used for model impregnation have also been measured and a value less than 200 Ω cm has been obtained at 3 wt.% CNF content
• carbon-black or metal powders increases the viscosity of the infiltrant so that it is not able to impregnate the 3D model structure
• the average diameter of the fibers is 100 nm and typical length is 50–200 μm

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"Inkjet Printing of Narrow Conductive Tracks on Untreated Polymeric Substrates"

• Small conductive tracks are created by direct inkjet-printing
• Ink with 30 nm silver particles onto flexible and transparent untreated polyarylate foils
• Diameter as narrow as 40 micrometers
• Conductivity is 13 to 23 % that of bulk silver
• may be applied in plastic electronics

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"Gravure printing of conductive particulate polymer inks on flexible substrates"

• conductive lines on paper and plastic films
• inks contained metal particles in an organic medium and were cured in temperatures of 70–120 °C
• A printed resistance down to ∼50 mΩ/□ was obtained, with conductor lines 4–7 μm thick
• thick ink layer is needed for high conductivity
• printed antennas and inductors

^[3]

"Reprinting the Telegraph:Replicating the Vail Register Using Multi-materials 3D Printing"

• Used SFF to fabricate a complete, active electromechanical system (telegraph)
• produced a complete electromagnet:stacked layers of 20 turns each, total resistance of 11.4Ω

^[4]

"SpoolHead(RepRap Wiki)"

• Reprap toolhead for printing with metal wire
• Made to print with nichrome wire to replicate RepRap electrical components

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"Materials Science(RepRap Wiki)"

• ConductiveMaterials can serve as CircuitBoard traces, wiring, antennae, electro magnets, and faraday cages, along with actual electrical components such as capacitors, resistors, and inductors
• Work done with printing metals and conductive filler

^[6]

"April 12, 2012 RepRap Blog"

• one Bowden extruder (for the plastic) and one "standard" extruder for the metal
• Arduino compatible Sanguino board
• plastic was printed before dropping in pre-tinned components and finally printing the metal tracks

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"Metalia RepRap"

• electron beam based printer (an electron gun and vacuum chamber are the primary requirements for thin film solar cell printers)
• Fully functional parts directly from standard metals
• For most parts it may offer dimensionally finished metal parts IT grade 7
• Good metallurgy on all common metals (Melting process rather than sintering process ensures near 100% of solid material)
• Closed loop system
• Self measurement of finished part tolerances.
• May offer automatic self correction (subtractive machining steps during build process and feedback with compensation used in the additive process).
• Can print thin film CIGS Solar cells in existing 10^{− 4} vacuum chamber with existing electron gun

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"DESIGN OF AN ELECTROMAGNETIC ACTUATOR SUITABLE FOR PRODUCTION BY RAPID PROTOTYPING"

• motor capable of being produced by RepRap, capable of printing with conductive materials
• print all electronic componenets of a 3D printer

^[9]

"3-D Printing of Open Source Appropriate Technologies for Self-Directed Sustainable Development"

• The ability to incorporate recycled metals into printed items would allow for the printing

of mechanically reinforced objects as well as switches and other electrically conductive applications

• Fab@Home can print with conductive paste
• Fab@Home can print electronics

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"Towards cyclic fabrication systems for modular robotics and rapid manufacturing"

• Extruder that extrudes low melting temp alloys into plastic parts
• The Reprap group has demonstrated formation of circuit wiring by extruding metal into plastic parts
• The extruder consists of a heated copper nozzle and a motorized syringe pump
• Used to print metal coil plates

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"Rapid Prototyped Electronic Circuits"

• create electrical circuits by using casting channels for low melting-point alloys within components
• Wood's alloy has a lower melting point (70 °C) than the ABS used for RP components
• able to replicate full printer
• print circuits

^[12]

'Printing Embedded Circuits'

• able to deposit conductive silicone traces within silicone and epoxy structures,

to drop in multiple electronic components, and then to continue building, resulting in three-dimensional objects with fully-embedded functional electronic circuits

• resistivity of approximately 5.0 x 10-6 Ω m
• successfully printed a planar circuit, flashlight, and 3D timer circuit using Fab@Home

^[13]

"Getting Rid of the Wires: Curved Layer Fused Deposition Modeling in Conductive Polymer Additive Manufacturing"

• potential to print plastic components with integral conductive polymer electronic circuits.
• Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process in which the layers of material that make up the part are deposited as curved layers instead of the conventional flat layers

^[14]

References