THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMER POWDERS FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND THE USE THEREOF

Organization Name

Inventor(s)

Mark Petrus Franciscus Pepels of Geleen (NL)

THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMER POWDERS FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND THE USE THEREOF

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 20240417589 titled 'THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMER POWDERS FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND THE USE THEREOF

Original Abstract Submitted

the invention is in the field of additive manufacturing. according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an additive manufacturing process for producing a printed article, comprising the step of sintering a powder composition comprising a thermoplastic elastomer, wherein the powder composition has a melting onset temperature tm,onset and a melting peak temperature tm,peak, which are measured according to iso 11357-1/3 (2009), wherein tm,peak minus tm,onset is 30� c. or less; and wherein a test article printed from the powder composition has a rebound resilience of 50% or more, measured according to din 53512. according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a powder composition suitable for additive manufacturing sintering processes comprising the steps of: (a) providing a starting material comprising a thermoplastic elastomer; (b) heating the starting material of step (a) or the size-reduced material of step (c) to a temperature sufficient to increase the melting onset temperature of the material, thereby obtaining an annealed material; and (c) reducing the size of the starting material of step (a) or the annealed material of step (b) into a powder having a d50 particle size value of 20-150 m, thereby obtaining a size-reduced material, wherein size reduction step (c) is performed before or after heating step (b).