Printed Article With Oriented Glass Flakes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing printed articles and feedstocks using glass as a filler material lack direction-dependent properties, such as anisotropy, which are not achieved with glass spheres, powder, or fibers, and face issues like moisture permeation and warpage due to glass flake orientation during printing.
Innovation Solution
The use of glass flakes with a high aspect ratio, oriented at angles relative to printed layers, and a depletion layer with a lower glass flake concentration, which enhances shape stability, moisture resistance, and crack-stopping capabilities, while preventing wicking and corrosion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If glass flakes with high aspect ratio are used as filler material, then shape stability and crack-stopping capabilities are improved, but moisture permeation and warpage occur due to glass flake orientation during printing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical and chemical parameters of the glass flake surface by applying silane coupling agents and other surface treatments. This modifies the surface energy and chemical composition to reduce moisture absorption and permeation while maintaining the mechanical reinforcement benefits of the high aspect ratio glass flakes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a depletion layer with lower glass flake concentration near the printed surface, resulting in a gradient structure where the surface region has different properties (lower moisture permeation) from the bulk region (higher strength). This local variation in composition resolves the contradiction between overall strength and surface moisture resistance
2Stability of the object's composition
If glass flakes are oriented at angles relative to printed layers, then anisotropy and shape stability are achieved, but wicking and corrosion are prevented only with additional surface treatment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a composite system combining glass flakes with silane coupling agents and other surface treatments. This composite approach provides both the structural benefits of oriented glass flakes (anisotropy and shape stability) and the protective benefits of surface treatments (prevention of wicking and corrosion)
Solution Approach 2:
The silane coupling agents act as intermediary substances between the glass flake surface and the polymer matrix. They provide a chemical bridge that improves interfacial adhesion, prevents wicking along interfaces, and protects against corrosion while allowing the glass flakes to maintain their oriented configuration for shape stability
3Object-affected harmful factors
If glass flake concentration is reduced at the surface to prevent moisture permeation, then moisture resistance is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases due to depletion layer formation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates glass flakes in granular form with pre-applied silane coupling agents and surface treatments before the printing process. This preliminary preparation ensures that the surface depletion layer forms naturally during printing with reduced process complexity, as the surface treatment is already in place before deposition begins
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides printed articles with improved shape stability, high moisture permeation resistance, and moisture-dependent electrical resistance, effectively preventing warpage and corrosion, and enabling fast response as a moisture sensor.
Implementation Method 1
The printed article has direction-dependent properties, i.e. anisotropy, of glass flake
Implementation Method 2
a depletion layer, having a lower concentration of glass flakes than in the rest of the printed article
Implementation Method 3
crack-stopping capabilities, while preventing wicking and corrosion
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a printed article and a feedstock for printing comprising a matrix forming material, in particular a polymeric material, and a filler material dispersed within the matrix forming material, in which the filler material comprises glass flakes. Glass flakes are characterized as having an aspect ratio of average diameter divided by average thickness greater than or equal to three. Selecting aspect ratio of glass flakes controls an orientation of glass flakes angled relative to a printed layer and formation of a depletion layer in a printed article. Technical effects of angled flakes include better adhesion between successive printed layers in 3D printing and a crack-stopping function. In a preferred embodiment the glass flakes comprise a conductive coating such that a printed article functions as a moisture sensor. Technical effects of a depletion layer include high moisture permeability and so a fast rate of change in electrical resistance due to moisture. A process of manufacturing a feedstock and a process of printing comprising a step of providing glass flakes are also disclosed.