A Preliminary Study of Conductive Filaments Printed Via Fused Filament Fabrication

Initially used as a prototyping tool for designers, additive manufacturing, also popularly known as 3D printing, has become an advanced process for manufacturing usable parts. This technology is expanding rapidly into a wide number of areas, such as electronic device fabrication, wearable electronics, biometric devices etc. It is especially useful for fabricating electronic devices, as it is possible to additively manufacture electrical traces within mechanical components simultaneously in a single operation cycle. This research specifically explores 3D printing using conductive feedstock materials with the fused filament extrusion (FFE) process. Commercially available conductive silver nanoparticle ink and graphene based polylactic acid (PLA) were printed using micro-extrusion and FFE techniques. Printing process parameters were adjusted using statistical analysis tools to enhance the conductivity of the printed conductive materials. A statistical analysis was also conducted on the samples to assess the impact of trace length, printing orientation, and aspect ratio on electrical conductivity