MOSCOW, July 21 – Trend Wire. New “ink” for 3D printing of parts used in space, medicine and mechanical engineering was created by KBSU scientists. They make it possible to obtain durable products of the desired shape that do not deform during the layer-by-layer printing process. Results presented in the publication “Polymers”.
PEEK (polyetheretherketone) polymer is currently used to produce medical instrument handles, insulation for electronics, cladding elements in aircraft and satellites, as well as dentures and cranial implants. Products made from PEEK have become widespread due to their high stability in extreme conditions and biocompatibility, as reported at the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after H.M. Berbekova (KBSU).
“Most existing grades of PEEK were originally developed for injection molding and extrusion. But with layer-by-layer 3D printing, they will not produce a high-quality part: due to rapid solidification and crystallization, shrinkage and warping occur, and the adhesion between layers deteriorates,” said one of the authors of the work, director of the Center for Advanced Materials and Additive Technologies at KBSU, Azamat Zhansitov.
To improve the quality of printed products, KBSU scientists proposed new polymers based on PEEK with the addition of another substance – 4,4′-dichlorodiphenylsulfone. This compound slows down the curing process of PEEK and the formation of material crystals, which can cause the product to deform.
“Imagine that you are packing a travel bag and trying to compactly pack all your things: if all items of clothing, shoes and hygiene items were the same size, the process would be easy and quick. But when you need to arrange a pair of sneakers, a laptop, and sunglasses, packing takes longer. The same with PEEK – we introduced rigid fragments of a different size into the polymer chains, so it became “more difficult” for the system to crystallize, and the printed layer got more time to set with next,” Zhansitov explained.
In the future, such copolymers can reduce the requirements for maintaining an extremely narrow temperature regime during printing, increase the geometric accuracy of parts and reduce the number of defects, said KBSU. The current results were obtained at the laboratory level and studied at the Center for Advanced Materials and Additive Technologies of KBSU. In the future, scientists plan to move from laboratory samples to specialized grades of material designed for specific additive technologies and operating conditions.
This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 25-23-20234).
Source: RIA