Design guidelines for electrical conductors and Joule-heating structures fabricated additively by material extrusion

ABSTRACT:

Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables the local adjustment of material properties using multi-material strategies, especially with Material Extrusion (MEX). Electrically conductive structures like conductors, Joule heating structures, and their transitions can be realised with conductive polymer composites (CPC). However, specific Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) guidelines for the afore mentioned structures are still missing. This work uses experimental data by thermography and the measurement of resistivity to derive twelve design rules. The rules are applied to an application example.