TY - JOUR

T1 - Bending Properties of Lightweight Copper Specimens with Different Infill Patterns Produced by Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing, Solvent Debinding and Sintering

AU - Gonzalez-Gutierrez, Joamin

AU - Cano Cano, Santiago

AU - Ecker, Josef Valentine

AU - Kitzmantel, Michael

AU - Arbeiter, Florian

AU - Kukla, Christian

AU - Holzer, Clemens

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021/8/6

Y1 - 2021/8/6

N2 - Material extrusion additive manufacturing (MEX) is a versatile technology for producing complex specimens of polymers, ceramics and metals. Highly-filled filaments composed of a binder system and a high-volume content of sinterable powders are needed to produce ceramic or metal parts. After shaping the parts via MEX, the binder is removed and the specimens are sintered to obtain a dense part of the sintered filler particles. In this article, the applicability of this additive manufacturing process to produce copper specimens is demonstrated. The particular emphasis is on investigating the production of lightweight specimens that retain mechanical properties without increasing their weight. The effect of infill grades and the cover presence on the debinding process and the flexural properties of the sintered parts was studied. It was observed that covers could provide the same flexural strength with a maximum weight reduction of approximately 23%. How-ever, a cover on specimens with less than 100% infill significantly slows down the debinding process. The results demonstrate the applicability of MEX to produce lightweight copper specimens.

AB - Material extrusion additive manufacturing (MEX) is a versatile technology for producing complex specimens of polymers, ceramics and metals. Highly-filled filaments composed of a binder system and a high-volume content of sinterable powders are needed to produce ceramic or metal parts. After shaping the parts via MEX, the binder is removed and the specimens are sintered to obtain a dense part of the sintered filler particles. In this article, the applicability of this additive manufacturing process to produce copper specimens is demonstrated. The particular emphasis is on investigating the production of lightweight specimens that retain mechanical properties without increasing their weight. The effect of infill grades and the cover presence on the debinding process and the flexural properties of the sintered parts was studied. It was observed that covers could provide the same flexural strength with a maximum weight reduction of approximately 23%. How-ever, a cover on specimens with less than 100% infill significantly slows down the debinding process. The results demonstrate the applicability of MEX to produce lightweight copper specimens.

KW - additive manufacturing

KW - copper

KW - debinding

KW - lightweight

KW - material extrusion

KW - sintering

KW - Material extrusion

KW - Debinding

KW - Lightweight

KW - Sintering

KW - Additive manufacturing

KW - Copper

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112267919&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/app11167262

DO - 10.3390/app11167262

M3 - Article

VL - 11

JO - Applied Sciences : open access journal

JF - Applied Sciences : open access journal

SN - 2076-3417

IS - 16

M1 - 7262

ER -