GAIKER DEVELOPS INNOVATIVE MATERIALS FOR 3D PRINTING

The technological centre GAIKER, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA), is taking part in the FUND3D project, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation scheme Retos Colaboración, the aim of which is to develop and validate 3D printing and post-processing materials for building functional moulds or tools for industrial application. This research is largely focused on developing new thermoplastic compounds and post-treatments to improve dimensional stability, thermal and machining performance and electrical and thermal conductivity.

An increasing number of businesses are incorporating open-code industrial printing equipment into their production processes in order to optimise their processes and shorten the time to market of their new products and services, leading to a need for technical 3D printing materials.

FUND3D was set up in 2018 to address this need. This project is currently in its final stage, which entails working on obtaining and validating demonstrators of the tools obtained by 3D printing with the materials and after-treatments studied and developed. To reach this final stage, different lines of research have been undertaken over three years of work:

1. Developing 3D printing materials that meet the specifications imposed on the tools for electrical applications, rubber injection moulds and moulds for thermostable polymer composite processing.
2. Developing 2.85 mm 3D printing filaments and assessment of their printing capacity in both desktop and industrial open-code equipment.
3. Researching the effect of the process variables and the 3D printing strategies on the mechanical properties and surface finish of the printed products.
4. Researching the after-treatments to enhance the thermomechanical and functional features of the printed products, paying special attention to the possibility of hybridisation of 3D printing technology with processing technologies and thermostable resins.

ELIX Polymer, FLEXIX and IKOR, is in charge of developing 3D printing materials and after-treatments to obtain printed tools. GAIKER possessed extensive experience and resources to tackle development through compounding and extrusion of filaments for 3D printing with FFF/FDM technology. It also has the necessary resources to characterise the materials and products to be printed and desktop and professional printers to assess the printing capacity of the materials and tackle the development of products with both thermoplastic commodities and with composites and high-performance technical thermoplastics.