Electrically conductive material for Powder Bed Fusion AM

Purpose and goal:

Industrial manufacturing with "Additive Manufacturing" (AM) is growing rapidly and by developing an electrically conductive material using graphene, companies will gain an advantage in product development and production. The goal is to develop such a material using graphene. We will use "Powder Bed Fusion" AM technology, which is the dominant in the industrial market.

Graphene is an excellent material choice for the composite material as it is a favorable and environmentally friendly material with a high electrical conductivity. Expected results and effects:

Industrial manufacturing using Additive Manufacturing is rapidly growing, by developing an electrically conductive material using graphene, companies will gain an advantage in product development and production. This would open the possibility for many new products. A large potential market for conductive Additive Manufacturing is the Electromagnetic Compatibility industry, which requires conductive encapsulation and shielding at different levels of conductivity.

An emerging market follows with the introduction of electric vehicles, which gives rise to new EMC demands. Approach and implementation: There is several key questions that needs to be answered, therefore the objectives of this project are: -How to functionalize the GM material for melt mixing improvement.

-How to achieve powder flow ability to obtain a material that is suitable to use in the AM machines. -To find electrical percolation threshold will this in terms of graphene filling. -To investigate how to selectively make GO conductive using laser processing in the AM machine. -To find what electrical conductance that can be achieved while keeping adequate material strength.

-To perform a market analysis.