When Lipps Inc. invited listeners to Funkytown, it is unlikely that the '80s disco group had in mind carbon nanotubes - not least because it would take until 1991 for researcher Sumio Iijima to identify the material. But for the team at Mechnano, an Arizona-based additive manufacturing (AM) materials start-up, carbon nanotubes are a fundamental part of their daily reprise, and their lab on the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus, known affectionately as Funkytown, is where D’Func was born.
“There are several stages in our process of producing carbon nanotube composites – one of them is functionalisation, but let's be real - saying ‘functionalisation’ over and over again can get old fast!” Olga Ivanova, aka Dr.O, Director of Applications & Technology at Mechnano, shared with TCT. “So instead of saying ‘functionalised carbon nanotubes’, we just started to call them ‘funky flakes’ because they are like flakes in a dry form. That's kind of how D’Func came to be.”
D’Func – discrete, dispersed, and functionalised carbon nanotubes – is the name given to Mechnano’s proprietary technology that addresses the challenges associated with utilising carbon nanotubes. This technology has been successfully applied to polymers for additive manufacturing, in turn, opening up possibilities for printed parts with better mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties.
“Carbon nanotubes offer a vast array of benefits that make them valuable in various industries,” Ivanova explained. “They are incredibly strong, which is perfect for industries like aerospace, electronics, healthcare, defense – you name it.”
Carbon nanotubes – or CNTs – are cylindrical structures of pure carbon. With a wall thickness of just a single atom, they are 10,000 times smaller than a human hair, 100 times stronger than steel, and possess 1,000 times the current capacity of copper. Yet, it’s been more than three decades since that initial discovery, and what was thought to be the next revolution in materials science hasn’t quite lived up to its potential, at least not for AM.
According to Olga, “Carbon nanotubes have a lot of impressive attributes. With that said, they tend to clump together during the manufacturing process and when they're all clumped up, they can't effectively share their unique properties with the material they're mixed in.”
Mechnano
Dr Olga Ivanova
This challenge is the basis of Mechnano’s innovation with D’Func. It has been engineered to overcome the natural tendency for carbon nanotubes to agglomerate. Mechnano’s team of material scientists have applied different chemistries to the sidewalls of CNTs to ensure they remain stable and dispersed within a material matrix, ultimately delivering better performance and the potential to add new properties, such as conductivity.
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“It's not just an innovation by improving the performance but also making a positive impact in the tech industry,” Ivanova said.
Mechnano was the first company in AM to fabricate parts with CNTs using material jetting and vat photopolymerization systems. The company came out of stealth in 2021 with a product that offered improved impact, tensile performance, and ESD (Electrostatic discharge) properties. Its discrete tubes can be tailored to specific requirements and processes, and Mechnano is now delivering ESD-safe additive materials through its proprietary masterbatches and readyto-use resins, powders and pellets. When asked about Mechnano’s bold ambitions to ‘change the world’ with its ESD materials, Ivanova, who oversees Mechnano’s marketing but has spoken candidly about the pitfalls of an overhyped AM industry, is keen to put those ambitions into context.
“ESD-safe products are essential for keeping electronic devices safe from static electricity damage,” she explained. “They’re also paramount in reducing the risk of fires and explosions in environments that are prone to that and obviously protecting living organisms. So, if you think about it, yes, we are changing the world, by protecting the world.”
Mechnano’s materials have attracted users from a range of industries, particularly aerospace and electronics, where a multitude of applications face elevated risks of damage from electrostatic discharge and demand innovative solutions to safeguard electronic components within intricate machinery and systems.
“Every innovation comes in waves,” Ivanova observes, suggesting that scalability, cost and, most importantly, consistent quality are amongst the biggest hurdles affecting further adoption of CNT materials. Mechnano has extended an open invitation to additive OEMs and users to collaborate on adding D’Func to their capabilities. Last year, for example, the company worked with Tethon3D to develop a new high-temperature ESD resin suitable for the fabrication of custom components that can withstand numerous thermal exposure cycles. Mechnano’s materials have also been validated and adopted by AM machine manufacturers such as Photocentric, Nexa3D, Arburg and Farsoon for the manufacture of static-dissipative parts. Last year Mechnano’s eco-friendly Polyketone ESD powder, its first laser sintering product, was qualified by Farsoon, and was also named as a finalist in this year’s TCT Awards Materials category. The material leverages Jabil’s low carbon footprint PK 5000 powder and incorporates D’Func technology to ensure parts with consistent electrostatic discharge properties at 107 ohms, while closely retaining Polyketone’s mechanical performance.
DB ESG
Parts printed with Mechnano materials
"It picks up and then it slows down,” Olga said of the rate of innovation in CNTs, and AM in general. “We are facing challenges of adoption. There is a lot of hesitation from industries that heavily rely on traditional manufacturing to fully embrace additive. Innovation happened with carbon nanotubes, especially in resins, three or so years ago, but the actual integration and acceptance of these solutions into manufacturing processes requires a significant period of time for widespread adoption.”
For Ivanova, materials are about “expanding the capability and versatility of additive manufacturing processes.” Today, Mechnano is focused on doing just that. Its customers are looking for new properties like conductivity and electromagnetic shielding, with demand for the latter being led by the aerospace sector. With a solid portfolio of resins, the team’s efforts are being placed on expanding laser sintering and pellet extrusion products.
“I think materials companies really pushed the limits [of AM],” Ivanova concludes. “Not to the limits but push the limits and keep on pushing by developing new composites and materials with unique properties that eventually, hopefully soon, will lead to wider adoption of additive technologies.”
This article originally appeared inside TCT Europe Edition Vol. 32 Issue 5 and TCT North American Edition Vol. 10 Issue 5. Subscribe here to receive your FREE print copy of TCT Magazine, delivered to your door six times a year.
