Plastic Metal-Free Electric Motor by 3D Printing of Graphene-Polyamide Powder

Abstract

3D printing has revolutionized a number of industries, but complete extension to electronics, robotics, and machines has yet to be realized. Current limitations are due to the absence of reliable and facile methods and materials for accessing conductive 3D printed materials. Traditional approaches to conducting nanocomposites (melt-mixing and solution-mixing) require high energy, are time-consuming, or demand functionalization for compatibilization between filler and matrix. Moreover, these methods usually require a high loading of nanofiller to establish a network of conductive particles (high percolation threshold). As such, access to conductive structures using standard 3D printing techniques and easily accessible starting materials is ideal for realizing next generation conductive polymer composites, with the added benefit of tailorability of size and shape of objects produced. Herein we present a facile method to prepare conductive polymer-based powder by assembling graphene oxide nanosheets on the surface of commercial polymer powder, then reduce the nanosheets to render them electrically conductive, and 3D print by selective laser sintering. Importantly, this simple and scalable method allows for polymer particles covered with carbon nanoparticles to be used to 3D print useful electrically conductive structures without a change to processing parameters compared to the polymer particles themselves. The chemical composition and mechanical and electrical properties of the composite materials were characterized, and we report the first example of a working electrostatic motor composed completely of 3D printed pieces, without any metal parts.

Additive manufacturing high performance graphene-based composites: A review

“…Power bed fusion (PBF), including direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), electron beam melting (EBM), selective laser sintering (SLS) and selective laser melting (SLM), is an AM process which utilizes thermal energy to selectively melt or sinter certain molten areas/pools of a powder bed [91,92]. Among those mentioned techniques, SLS was found to successfully manufacture graphene-based ceramic (Al 4 C 3 [93]), metal (Fe/GO [61], Al/graphene [94], Cu/graphene [95]) and polymer/graphene composites [96,97].…”

A Review on Methods to Reduce Weight and to Increase Efficiency of Electric Motors Using Lightweight Materials, Novel Manufacturing Processes, Magnetic Materials and Cooling Methods

“…Characterization of mechanical, electrical and chemical properties is carried out. The first prototype of a motor assembled by parts made through 3D printing without any metal part is reported by De Leon et al [49].…”

3D Printing of a Robust Polyamide‐12‐Carbon Black Composite via Selective Laser Sintering: Thermal and Electrical Conductivity

“…The key intention of using SFF is to create a tangible model of a component in a system, for example, moving mechanical part, or sometimes the system itself as a whole . Belonging to additive manufacturing, SFF is composed of different techniques namely stereolithography (SLA), fused deposition modeling (FDM), direct ink writing (DIW), 3D printing (3DP), and selective laser sintering (SLS) . Using a computer‐aided design (CAD) 3D model and software, SLS builds by sintering and fusing powder material in a layer by layer fashion via a computer‐controlled directed heat source until the target object is completely formed …”