SBIR Phase II: High thermal conductivity continuous fiber reinforced 3D printing materials

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使先进的3D打印材料能够解决新兴电子设备、运输技术、建筑物加热和冷却系统以及制造过程中热管理方面的挑战。过热是一个主要的挑战，因为电气设备继续变得更加紧凑和能源密集。通过传统方法制造的热交换器通常是昂贵的，制造起来是能量密集的，并且遭受腐蚀、有限的性能和高维护成本。传统的金属模具通常价格昂贵，需要较长的交货期，并且设计自由度有限。为了应对这些挑战，该项目将开发一种新型高导热复合材料平台，可用于3D打印部件，增强电子冷却和性能，同时降低产品重量和成本，可以提高热交换器性能，同时减少腐蚀，结垢和相关维护，并且还可以用于3D打印低成本和高性能的模具，具有低成本资本和短的交付周期。该项目将为工程师提供一个先进的材料平台，以创造具有金属般导热性的零件，但具有打印塑料的速度，成本低和最终的设计自由度。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将开发3D打印塑料复合材料，其导热性比标准塑料高500倍。这种独特的材料在3D打印细丝中加入了连续的金属丝和纤维，以实现传统制造的复合材料部件无法实现的导热率值。 聚合物复合材料外壳和线/纤维芯可以定制以提供高强度、高温稳定性和甚至焦耳加热。这些材料直接在市售和低成本的独立双挤出（IDEX）3D打印机上使用修改后的硬件和软件平台打印。印刷和长丝生产将通过以下五个目标来实现：1）最终确定用于所需材料性能的长丝配方，2）建立中试规模的长丝生产线以证明生产可扩展性，3）完成较小的3D打印机硬件修改以适应长丝打印，4）开发软件以打印和优化用于所需性能的部件，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to enable advanced 3D printing materials to solve challenges in emerging electronic devices, transportation technologies, heating and cooling system for buildings, and in thermal management in manufacturing processes. Overheating is a major challenge as electrical devices continue to grow more compact and energy dense. Heat exchangers manufactured through traditional methods are often expensive and energy intensive to fabricate and suffer from corrosion, limited performance, and high maintenance costs. Traditional mold tools machined from metals are often expensive, require long lead times, and have limited design freedom. To address these challenges, this project will develop a platform of novel high thermal conductivity composite materials that can be used to 3D print parts that enhance electronics cooling and performance while also reducing the product weight and cost, can improve heat exchanger performance while also reducing corrosion, fouling and associated maintenance, and can also be used to 3D print low cost and high-performance molds with low-cost capital and short lead times. The project will result in an advanced materials platform for engineers to create parts with metal-like thermal conductivity, but with the speed, low cost, and ultimate design freedom of printing plastics.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develops 3D printable, plastic composite materials with 500x higher thermal conductivity than standard plastics. The unique materials incorporate continuous wires and fibers in 3D printing filaments to achieve thermal conductivity values not possible in traditionally manufactured composite parts. The polymer composite shell and wire/fiber core can be tailored to offer high strength, high temperature stability, and even joule heating. These materials are printed directly on commercially available and low-cost Independent Dual Extrusion (IDEX) 3D printers using a modified hardware and software platform. Printing and filament production will be accomplished through the following five objectives: 1) finalize filament formulations for the desired material properties, 2) establish a pilot scale filament manufacturing line to demonstrate production scalability, 3) complete minor 3D printer hardware modifications to accommodate filament printing, 4) develop software to print and optimize parts for desired properties, and 5) print application examples and validate product performance with commercially relevant demonstrations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.