Effects of copper fillers on mechanical and electrical properties of selective laser sintered PA 12-Cu composites

Abstract

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is a widely used additive manufacturing (AM) technique for creating 3D geometries by adding materials in layers. Although neat polymer is mainly used in powder forms for production, organic or inorganic fillers can be added to produce polymer composites by SLS method. In this study, Polyamide 12 (PA 12) matrix composite parts filled with two different copper particles, dendritic and spherical shaped, were produced, and their mechanical, structural and electrical properties were investigated. The present study outlined that by increasing incident energy densities during sample fabrication, changes in mechanical and electrical characteristics were examined. The findings were analysed in terms of filler type and energy input, which were discovered to have a slight change in the bending behaviour of SLS components. Furthermore, the impact strength was shown to increase constantly with increasing energy density. Furthermore, whereas the electrical conductivity of spherical Cu-filled parts rose considerably, no significant change was seen in dendritic-shaped Cu-filled parts.