SBIR Phase II: High thermal conductivity continuous fiber reinforced 3D printing materials

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to enable advanced 3D printing materials to solve challenges in emerging electronic devices, transportation technologies, heating and cooling system for buildings, and in thermal management in manufacturing processes. Overheating is a major challenge as electrical devices continue to grow more compact and energy dense. Heat exchangers manufactured through traditional methods are often expensive and energy intensive to fabricate and suffer from corrosion, limited performance, and high maintenance costs. Traditional mold tools machined from metals are often expensive, require long lead times, and have limited design freedom. To address these challenges, this project will develop a platform of novel high thermal conductivity composite materials that can be used to 3D print parts that enhance electronics cooling and performance while also reducing the product weight and cost, can improve heat exchanger performance while also reducing corrosion, fouling and associated maintenance, and can also be used to 3D print low cost and high-performance molds with low-cost capital and short lead times. The project will result in an advanced materials platform for engineers to create parts with metal-like thermal conductivity, but with the speed, low cost, and ultimate design freedom of printing plastics. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develops 3D printable, plastic composite materials with 500x higher thermal conductivity than standard plastics. The unique materials incorporate continuous wires and fibers in 3D printing filaments to achieve thermal conductivity values not possible in traditionally manufactured composite parts. The polymer composite shell and wire/fiber core can be tailored to offer high strength, high temperature stability, and even joule heating. These materials are printed directly on commercially available and low-cost Independent Dual Extrusion (IDEX) 3D printers using a modified hardware and software platform. Printing and filament production will be accomplished through the following five objectives: 1) finalize filament formulations for the desired material properties, 2) establish a pilot scale filament manufacturing line to demonstrate production scalability, 3) complete minor 3D printer hardware modifications to accommodate filament printing, 4) develop software to print and optimize parts for desired properties, and 5) print application examples and validate product performance with commercially relevant demonstrations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.