Zhao Fu, Teemu Salo, Remmi Calvo Guzman, Jukka Vanhala, Matti Mäntysalo

Hybrid Material Extrusion (MEX) Process Optimization for Printability and Adhesion in 3D Printed Electronics

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • General Materials Science
Save to CiteDrive Show PDF

3D printing exhibits strong potential in electronics manufacturing for its quick prototyping and capability of manufacturing complex structures with a wide range of materials. However, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) has rarely been fabricated by 3d printing for electronics due to the limited understanding of its printability and the adhesion of the conductors on it. In this research, we investigate the printability of TPU using varying layer height and printing temperature in the Materials Extrusion (MEX) process, their impacts on the printability, and the adhesion of conductive trace on TPU. The printability is characterized by the surface roughness, stability of dimension and mass, and the adhesion is evaluated by a standard cross‐cutting method. In this research, 0.2 mm layer height and 220 °C printing temperature have consistently proven to be optimal configuration parameters for MEX printing of TPU. Larger layer height in TPU printing causes poorer printing quality (lower dimensional accuracy, more porous structure, rougher surface), lower ink‐TPU adhesion, and transforms the adhesive failure of ink against peeling to cohesive failure. Higher printing temperature causes less homogeneous structure and rougher surface with minor influence on the width and conductivity of ink on TPU, and no influence on the mechanism of ink failure against peeling.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Need a simple solution for managing your BibTeX entries? Explore CiteDrive!

  • Web-based, modern reference management
  • Collaborate and share with fellow researchers
  • Integration with Overleaf
  • Comprehensive BibTeX/BibLaTeX support
  • Save articles and websites directly from your browser
  • Search for new articles from a database of tens of millions of references
Try out CiteDrive

More from our Archive