3D-Printed Conductive Compositions Anticipating or Indicating Structural Damage

Abstract

The present invention provides an article comprising a body and at least one segment of 3D printable conductive composite in mechanical communication with the body. The body includes a first material, and at least one conductive composite segment includes a matrix material, a plurality of carbon nanotubes, and a conductive additive. The conductive additive includes a plurality of metal particles, a plurality of graphite particles, or a combination thereof.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates to smart articles comprising conductive compositions that can be used to indicate structural damage or potential structural damage. Background technique [0002] Additive manufacturing (also known as three-dimensional printing) as practiced in industry has so far mainly involved printing structural features. There is a need for materials and processes that integrate functional properties, such as electronic features, into additive manufacturing. Recently, polymer composite compositions of potentially useful conductive materials in additive manufacturing have been commercialized, but their conductivities are generally low, in the range of ~10 -3 S / cm to ~2.0 S / cm or more. Commercially available materials, especially conductive materials such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or polylactic acid (PLA) generally have limited mechanical properties (e.g., are not flexible and / or are rather brittle), which Use as a fun...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While these materials have been explored extensively in academia and industry, the focus has generally been on minimizing the amount of conductive additives needed to form a permeable network, where the conductivity is relatively low

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