Orion AM’s Thermal Radiation Heating (TRH) process Orion AM’s thermal radiation heating (TRH) process not only fuses the layers together, but it also enables the formation of PEEK’s semi-crystalline structures in-situ during its high-temperature printing process. If PEEK is cooled down too quickly from its melting point, the material will be amorphous and weaker than in its semi-crystalline state. Semi-crystalline polymers like PEEK greatly benefit from this because the crystalline structures must be formed slowly at high temperatures. Polymer Scientist & 3D printing PEEK expert at Solvay Specialty Polymers.“These are the best results we have ever seen so far.” Brian Alexander Thermal radiation requires less energy because heat is radiated toward the part whereas in convection systems the air is heated and then circulated, resulting in major heat losses and temperature gradients as the hot air cool down as it flows through the system. The patent-pending process involves applying heat to the material directly via thermal radiation as opposed to heating the air via convection. Orion Additive Manufacturing GmbH has brought in over 9 years of experience in FFF extrusion-based research and development to create one of the most advanced industrial 3D printing systems. Annealing of parts will not improve density nor resolve weak inter-layer bonding. If this can be achieved, the two layers will no longer behave as two individual layers, but as one, 100% dense part that is completely solid and uniform throughout. This latter part is the crucial hurdle for 3D printers to produce structurally robust parts from HPP. Thus for a 3D printer to make a part out of a HPP, its extruder not only has to reach the high temperature to melt the filament, but it also has to maintain the previously deposited material at a sufficiently high temperature to promote the bonding between print lines and layers. The lower temperature processes also result in high void content because the printed bead lines do not fuse well with each other, further weakening the printed parts.įFF Printed parts with many internal voids Although the annealed parts look more crystalline, the crystalline structures only exist in each layer and are not formed between the layers resulting in prints that remain weak in the Z-orientation. In an attempt to improve the properties, manufacturers suggest annealing the resulting brown, amorphous printed parts to get a light beige part with higher crystallinity. Most 3D printers on the market that claim to print with PEEK have heated chambers that reach a maximum of 150☌, which is high enough to achieve the glass transition temperature of PEEK but results in weak inter-layer bonding and low crystallinity. However, using 3D printers to create components from materials like PEEK has been largely impossible or impractical due to their high processing temperatures. PEEK can be used to fabricate parts for the most demanding of applications such as piston components inside of an engine, ultra-high vacuum applications in aerospace, and even medical implants such as a cranial plate. Out of these extraordinary plastics, PEEK (Poly-ether-ether-ketone) has the most extraordinary properties of them all due to its semi-crystalline nature. These materials retain outstanding mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties when subjected to the world’s harshest environments such as high temperature, high pressure, and corrosive chemicals. In recent years, High-Performance Polymers (HPP) have been introduced as filaments for FFF 3D printers. This has been largely due to the limits of not just the materials, but also due to the lack of innovation in the processes for the materials. In consideration of processing methods for the production of industrial end-use parts, FFF seems like an unlikely and implausible technology. Despite the 30+ year history of Additive Manufacturing (AM), extrusion-based Fused-Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing of thermoplastics has been limited to mostly producing prototypes or mockups of products.
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