High Temperature Monofilament for Additively Manufactured Thermal Protection Materials

Plan to develop materials and processes for the additive manufacturing of thermal protection and management materials and systems for hypersonic vehicles. NanoSonic will extrude standard monofilament of a polymer derived ceramic consisting of a low temperature polymer binder and high temperature carbide and nitride powder fillers. The polymer derived ceramic will be designed to have two effective transition temperatures. The first transition temperature will be reached as the filled resin material exits the heated extruder and will be designed to give the monofilament sufficient mechanical robustness to be handled in fused filament fabrication 3D printing and filament winding systems. Either of these additive manufacturing approaches can use this green state or B-stage monofilament to produce near net shape structural parts. The consolidation temperature will be designed to remove remaining binder, leaving only the coalesced high temperature filler molecules in a dense part. Approved for Public Release | 19-MDA-10270 (18 Nov 19)