Mechnano introduces carbon nanotube technology for additive manufacturing materials

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Mechnano

Mechnano

Enhanced ESD properties for 3D printed electronic housings. 

Arizona-based Mechnano has come out of stealth to introduce a technology that enables carbon nanotubes (CNT) to be harnessed in additive manufacturing materials.

The company believes its technology represents an ‘extraordinary breakthrough’ for additive manufacturing materials, believing it will significantly enhance characteristics like impact strength and tear resistance.

Carbon nanotubes were discovered in the early 1990s and are one hundred times stronger than steel, a thousand times more conductive than copper and harder than a diamond. Having carried out more than ten years of research and development, Mechnano has created a method to process CNTs into a ‘discrete form’ which can be dispersed throughout additive manufacturing materials without re-clumping. The resulting discrete tubes, called Mech^T, can be tailored to the performance requirements of the selected 3D printing system and deliver increases in tensile strength up to 50%, increases in toughness up to 200% and increases in tear resistance up to 850%, per Mechnano.

The company’s first product is Formula1, a photopolymer resin that uses CNTs to deliver ESD properties to printed parts. This material, with its isotropic ESD performance, no carbon trails, and increased yield strength, will be suitable for applications in defence and electronics manufacturing. With more CNT-enhanced materials for more 3D printing processes to come, Mechnano also expects to penetrate the automotive, aerospace and medical markets.

“While many of the CNT applications are still Newtonian dreams, Mechnano has realised key material advancements – including variations of Mech^T that can be jetted; low energy absorption CNT variations that work in existing UV curable systems; variations with aspect ratios worthy of advancing binder technologies; and much more,” commented Mechnano CEO Steven Lowder. “These advances bring greatly increased mechanical properties; also allow us to add electrical properties to plastics without degrading the mechanical properties; improve and add thermal properties, embed optical properties and even add properties like magnetism to plastics.”

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