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EP-4302981-B1 - OBJECT MADE BY ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

EP4302981B1EP 4302981 B1EP4302981 B1EP 4302981B1EP-4302981-B1

Inventors

  • BRUGGEMAN, Thomas Jonathan
  • BRUGGEMAN, Adrianus
  • KUIPER, Bouwe
  • BARTELDS, Jan Teun
  • KUIT, Koendert Hendrik
  • GROEN, Klaas
  • Wolbers, Martijn Johannes
  • VOSS, Kevin Hendrik Jozef

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20180302

Claims (5)

  1. A three-dimensional object created by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) of a modeling material from polyaryletherketones (PAEK), polyphenylsulfides, polyamide-imide, polyethersulfon, polyetherimide, polysulfon, polyphenylsulfon, polycarbonates (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), polyethyleneterephtalate (PET), polystryrene (PS), acrylonitrilstyrene acrylate, polypropylene (PP), polylactic acid (PLA), polyvinylalcohol (PVA), polyethylene (PE), polyoxymethylene, polyurethane (PU), copolymers of polyvinylalcohol and butenediolvinylalcohol and mixtures thereof, optionally filled with inorganic or organic fillers, wherein the ultimate tensile strength of a test piece measured in the Z-direction is at least 70% of the ultimate tensile strength of the test piece measured in the X-direction or Y-direction, wherein the ultimate tensile strength is measured according to ISO 527-2:2012 SPECIMEN 5A.
  2. The object according to the previous claim, wherein the object is prepared from a thermoplastic composition using FDM, and wherein the thermoplastic polymer is chosen from polyethylene, polypropylene, ABS, polycarbonate, polyamide and polyarylether ketones (PAEK) like for example polyether ketone (PEK), polyethyer ethyer ketone (PEEK), polyether ketone ketone (PEKK), polyether ether ketone ketone (PEEKK) and polyether ether ketone ether ketone ketone (PEKEKK) and combinations thereof.
  3. The object according to any one of claims 1-2, wherein the thermoplastic polymer composition comprises at least 80 wt% of a PAEK, preferably at least 90 wt% of a PAEK.
  4. The object according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the thermoplastic polymer composition comprises at least 80 wt% of PEEK, preferably at least 90 wt% of a PEEK, more preferably PEEK.
  5. The object according to the previous claim, a test specimen of the object having dimensions according to ISO 527-2:2012 SPECIMEN 5A made from said polymer composition by said additive manufacturing has an ultimate tensile stress according to ISO 527-2:2012 SPECIMEN 5A of at least 50 MPa, 60 MPa, 70 MPa, or at least 80 MPa in any of the X, Y, Z directions.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a three-dimensional object made by additive manufacturing of a modeling material, like for example a thermoplastic polymer composition. BACKGROUND In additive manufacturing objects are formed by layering modeling material in a controlled manner such that a desired three dimensional shaped object can be created. Very often for additive manufacturing an additive manufacturing printer is used. The printer has a two or three dimensionally moveable printhead which dispenses the modeling material, while the printhead is moved over previously deposited tracks of the modeling material. A preferred examples of additive manufacturing is fused deposition modeling (FDM). The object to be printed can be placed on a base. The printhead is movable in a three dimensional space relative to the object being modeled or printed or vice versa. In some cases, the object is movable in one or more dimensions relative to the printhead. Various combinations are possible for moving the object on which the object is modeled relative to the printhead and vice versa. The motions of the printhead and optionally base are controlled by a control system which controls a controllable positioning system to which the printhead (and optionally base) is attached. By means of software a pattern of tracks can be designed, which pattern is used for moving the printhead and for depositing the tracks. The object is created on a base structure in a reference location relative to the movable printhead. The modeling material can be fused with previously formed tracks. The additive manufacturing material can be fed in the printhead in the form of for example filaments, granulate, rods, liquid or a suspension. The printhead dispenses the modeling material from the printhead through a nozzle and deposits it on the base in the form of tracks forming a layer of tracks, or when a previous layer of the object to be created has been deposited, on the object on previously deposited tracks where it is allowed to solidify. The modeling material can be thermally or chemically or otherwise fused with the previously deposited tracks. The chemically modeling material can be dispensed from the printhead and deposited on the previously deposited tracks and cured to solidify immediately after the deposition. The relative motion of the base and object to the printhead in tracks and simultaneous deposition of modeling material from the printhead allow the fused deposition modeled object to grow with each deposited track and gradually attains its desired shape. In current material extrusion printers (including granulate extruders, ram extruders and syringe extruders), the material is deposited in a feed forward, flow-controlled way. The flow of the modeling material is kept constant, depending on thickness of the tracks to be deposited and the print speed. As part of the machine calibration, the material flow is calibrated. Moreover, the X-Y-Z positioning system which causes the printhead to move over the previously deposited tracks of the object being created must be calibrated in order to maintain accurate dimensions of the object to be created and especially to maintain a controlled thickness of the tracks being deposited. When the calibration is correct, solid objects can be printed accurately using flow control. When the gap between the printhead nozzle and the previously deposited layer for example increases due to lack of calibration, the flow of modeling material can become too small to fill up the gap, thereby causing the occurrence of spaces between the printed tracks, resulting in cavities in the printed object. This is called under-extrusion. On the other hand, when the gap between the printhead nozzle and the previously deposited layers decreases due to lack of calibration, the flow of modeling material can become too high for the track being deposited, so too much material will be extruded. This is called over-extrusion. Over-extrusion can also occur when the track is laid between two previously deposited tracks and the space there between is narrowing. This may result in excessive forces between the object and the printhead and in a rough surface of the object due to overflow of the modeling material. The overflow of modeling material may lead to debris or residue on the nozzle tip of the printhead which may come off the nozzle tip and fuse with the object being printed and cause potential loss of the object. Also, the print head smears over the object being printed, causing a very rough top surface of the object and excessive forces which ultimately cause the object from breaking loose from the build plate. Loss of calibration may also be caused by thermal expansion while printing and subsequent shrinking after printing of thermally fused material. When the thermal expansion and shrinking are insufficiently compensated, the gap between nozzle and previously deposited layers may not have constant dimensions. Lik