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3D Printing of Electronic Components
Vincent Charbonneau provided an overview of 3D printing capabilities on engineering.com website. This overview complete the picture of article about 3D printed capacitors by Nano-Dimension 3D printer here.
As a technology, 3D printing has existed for longer than some might think. Also known as additive manufacturing, due to the fact that objects are printed by adding material layer by layer, 3D printing first came to prominence in the 1990s. Given the technology’s infancy at the time, it was mostly suitable for the creation of aesthetic reference models during a project’s rapid prototyping phase.
Since that time, 3D printing has matured to the point where complex electronic components like circuit boards can now be constructed entirely through the use of CAD models and specialized 3D printers.
3D Printing Electronic Components
While several methods exist for 3D printing electronic components, typically this is accomplished by utilizing a dual-material fused filament process with conductive thermoplastic filaments. These thermoplastic filaments are often made with copper, but occasionally carbon and graphene are used instead. The latter are more brittle than copper, however, and have a tendency to shatter when subjected to significant vibrations.
As with all 3D printing, a digital CAD model of the desired part must first be designed, as this will serve as the printer’s instruction model, providing it with all the dimensional data required to build the component. Once the printing process begins, a trace is created (sort of like a part’s “fingerprint”), and then the requisite materials needed for that specific part are added in layers.
One key challenge when it comes to 3D printing electronic components compared to other printing projects is the need to use wider and thicker traces to compensate for the fact that the conductive ink, paint or filament utilized to build the traces has a higher resistance than the copper that is commonly used.
3D-printed Microstrip antennas. (Image courtesy of Nano Dimension.
)Many companies have already made significant forays into overcoming the numerous challenges posed by 3D printing complex components, allowing them to produce systems that are increasingly scalable and efficient. One such company is Nano Dimension.
Nano Dimension’s flagship platform is its DragonFly Lights-Out Digital Manufacturing (LDM) system for electronic circuitry. DragonFly LDM integrates a precise inkjet deposition printer with dedicated nano-inks and 3D software to print electronic circuits such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), antennas, capacitors and sensors.
DragonFly LDM printing method. (Image courtesy of Nano Dimension.)The DragonFly’s eponymous “Lights-Out” manufacturing system signifies that the device is designed to run 24/7 with little to no operator intervention. According to Nano Dimension, “In the case of additive manufacturing, LDM means DragonFly users can 3Dprint more functioning electronic circuitry faster, extending the DragonFly’s rapid prototyping capabilities beyond prototyping.
Users can now 3D print one-off prototypes as well as low-volume manufacturing of printed electronics.”
Making use of two self-cleaning print heads, one for nano-silver conductive ink and the other for dielectric polymer ink, DragonFly LDM is able to concurrently print with both inks in a single print job. Nano Dimension’s Switch software also plays an important role by preparing electronic designs for printing.
Switch users can adjust many characteristics of a 3D file, such as layer thickness, conductor width, layer order, punching, rotation options, as well as the shape or object outline. In addition, the software helps optimize the printing process by maximizing the use of the printing surface.
“The DragonFly LDM is designed to help our customers prepare for Industry 4.0 and stay competitive in a world that demands electronic devices with increasingly sophisticated features. Like its predecessor, the DragonFly Pro, it’s the first of its kind on the market, carefully designed for both ease of use and even more agile, faster and affordable 3D printing of functional circuitry,” said Amit Dror, CEO and cofounder of Nano Dimension.
“We’re confident that the LDM system will provide best-in-class additive manufacturing of printed electronics on the market, making it possible for companies to be more innovative, improve productivity and reliability, lower costs, and reduce time-to-market.”
Another company that has thrown its hat into the electronic 3D printing ring is Optomec, which is focusing its efforts on Aerosol Jet technology and has developed a 3D printer capable of printing interconnects, traces, and even passive and active components on 2D and 3D substrates.
Printers equipped with the Aerosol Jet 3D printing system are able to print on a multitude of substrates, including plastics, ceramics and metallic structures. In addition, Aerosol Jet printers can print conformal interconnects on 3D surfaces, eliminating the need for wire bonding (for instance, printing electrical connections on 3D stacked die or for LED chip fabrication).
Aerosol Jet printing system. (Image courtesy of Optomec.)In terms of emerging applications for its technology, Optomec hopes to one day add biological component printing to its printer’s list of capabilities.
“The technology behind Aerosol Jet can print electronic and biological components onto 2D and 3D surfaces. By tightly integrating electronic circuitry with physical packaging, Aerosol Jet is fueling growth in new consumer and military applications where increased functionality in smaller spaces is a key driving factor,” the company stated.
All told, there are many advantages associated with 3D printing, some of which have already been discussed above. From mass customization, greater design freedom, tooling reductions and packing efficiencies, there is no shortage of benefits from 3D printing.
That is not to say that the technology is flawless—far from it. There are still many hurdles to overcome before 3D printing, especially the printing of complex components like PCBs, can really take off on a large scale. Currently, the 3D printing of electronics still has a high energy consumption when contrasted with traditional manufacturing systems, and the printing process itself can be quite slow.
Furthermore, as more and more people gain access to sophisticated 3D printers and the less complex the process becomes, the more difficult it will be to stop the illegal manufacturing or “pirating” of proprietary technology.
3D printing has tremendous potential, and as the technology continues to be refined over time, there is little doubt that increasingly complex components—both organic and artificial—will be printed and produced on a mass scale. There may even come a day when advanced 3D printers become a common household staple, just like refrigerators or stoves. Until that day arrives, companies like Nano Dimension, Optomec and others will continue to push the boundaries of electronic manufacturing via 3D printing.
featured image source: Nano-Dimension
Source: Engineering.com
3D printing electronics: Transforming the electronic industry
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Contents:
- Introduction
- What are the advantages of 3D printing for electronics?
- 3D printing with electrostatic discharging properties
- Conductive 3D printing offering new opportunities
- 3D printed electronics: What is possible?
- What about the future of 3D printing in the electronics industry?
Introduction
What are the advantages of 3D printing for electronics?
3D print the perfect prototype
3D printing helps you get from the idea to the product in a matter of days.
Thus, 3D printing electronic devices appears to be really interesting. The professional 3D printers used by Sculpteo’s online 3D printing service allow you to create high-quality casings for your devices with the highest level of details. They will perfectly match your electronics components such as a circuit board. Rapid prototyping is also made easy thanks to the 3D printing process and will allow you to build the best product designs. Launch your first series
Moreover, the electronics industry can truly benefit from additive manufacturing. No stock, no minimum number of units and short turnaround are the key upsides of using Sculpteo’s 3D printing service for your electronic devices, regardless of where they are in product life cycle management. Electronic production is made easy thanks to our 3D printing technology and will improve and simplify your whole supply chain management! 3D printing and electronics are strongly linked. Online 3D printing allows you to create a new kind of relationship with your clients.
You can easily produce small series, limited editions and spare parts in a small batch. Whether you’re looking for just a prototype or a thousand units, your 3D printing product will benefit from our experience and know-how to achieve the best quality. Design freedom
Electronic components production can now be thought in terms of 3D design and not only 2D, with new ways of stacking the circuits. It opens new possibilities to design for electronics, that are new to explore! Customization is becoming a big asset while using additive manufacturing for the creation of your products: you can create parts perfectly adapted to a circuit board or any electronic device. 3D printing can be used to create personalized electronic enclosures, USB stick cases, and keyboards, for example. Using additive manufacturing also offers you flexibility in the creation of your design. More than a perfectly adapted device, you can also elaborate complex geometries impossible to make with other traditional manufacturing techniques.
With 3D printing, you can also make the most of parts that don’t require any assembly process! 3D printing with electrostatic discharging properties
What is an electrostatic discharge?
What is called “electrostatic discharge” (ESD) is the flow of electricity between two electrically charged parts causes by contact. Static electricity often causes ESD through a process known as tribocharging. This static electricity can arise when surfaces rub together and this results in an excess of electrons on one surface and a deficiency on the other. The ESD occurs when differently-charged objects are brought close together or when the dielectric between them breaks down, often creating a visible spark. Electrostatic Discharges are a real problem and can damage sensitive electronic components. It can also lead to the alteration of magnetic media and set off fires, explosions in flammable environments! ESD is a big concern for the electronic industry, and being able to manufacture ESD-safe part is a real advantage to avoid any problem.
Focus on: Ultrasint PA 11 ESD
At Sculpteo, we are now offering you the possibility to manufacture your ESD-safe parts. If you are prototyping or producing a project where electrostatic discharging safety is critical, our Ultrasint® PA11 ESD material will be a perfect choice. Ultrasint® PA11 ESD is a bio-derived material, appearing to be a perfect choicel for increased process safety in advanced applications. With its interesting mechanical properties, this material offers new possibilities for a wide range of new applications, especially for the electronics sector. Indeed, with its low resistivity, Ultrasint® PA11 ESD is reducing the risk of electrostatically induced damage or failures, the material does not accumulate static electricity and can come in contact with electronic components without running any risk. The surface resistivity of Ultrasint® PA11 ESD is lower than traditional electrostatic dissipating materials. You can now make the most of the advantages of both additive manufacturing and electrostatic discharge properties.
For electronic housing, electronic jigs and fixtures, this material is perfectly adapted. PA 11 ESD also as other advantages and interesting mechanical properties such as high tensile strength and elasticity, which could help you create efficient tools. What are you waiting for? With this material, you can create parts combining superior mechanical and thermal characteristics with outstanding electrostatic discharging properties. Get your parts 3D printed with Ultrasint® PA11 ESD by uploading your 3D file on our 3D printing service right now. It will only take a few clicks and you will get an instant quote.
Conductive 3D printing offering new opportunities
3D printing complex electronic components could go even further with conductive 3D printing. The creation of electronic devices with conductive features using 3D printing can particularly be useful to develop IoT (Internet of Things) projects. This innovative technology could allow creating 3D printed devices like LED, or touch sensors.
But this ability to 3D print conductive devices could be involved in bigger projects, in soft robotics, 3D electronics, and also for communication devices such as 3D printed Near Field Communication (NFC) antennas.
3D printed electronics: What is possible?
As you will see, this 3D technology can be used for various applications in the electronics industry. Get inspired by these innovative electronic devices made using additive manufacturing!
3D printed circuit board by Nano Dimension and Harris Corp: 3D Printed Circuit Boards
Nano Dimension is known to work actively on 3D printed electronic devices The Nano Dimension’s DragonFly™ system is used to 3D print functional electronics prototypes and complex multi-layer Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). But that is not all.
Nano Dimension and Harris Corp partnered to develop 3D printed electronic devices to create a radio frequency (RF) amplifier. They now work to go further and create hardware for the International Space Station.
Their goal is to optimize the 3D printing process for RF components for flight studies aboard the ISS. Using additive manufacturing is a solution for them to find new ways to create radio frequency and circuit boards to find new innovative techniques.
The Simusolar project
At Sculpteo, some of our customers are working on solar energy using 3D printing. On the blog, we already told you about Simusolar, a company created in 2014 and looking to bring solar energy to the rural population of Tanzania. They develop and implement small-scale sustainable solutions to help local people in their everyday life.
They decided to use 3D printing because they needed a lot of custom made parts, for a low price. Their clients are farmers, fishers, or rural residents looking for various equipment powered by solar energy.
Optomec developing the Aerosol Jet Technology
Optomec announced that their Aerosol Jet Technology will be printing embedded electronics at the micron scale.
The innovative process relies on both local deposition and local curing. This way, electronics parts are more affordable and require less waste of materials, and all of this with a superior resolution.
Start 3D printing enclosures!
3D printing enclosures are one of the most common uses of 3D printing for the electronic industry. Solidity, quality, customization, and accuracy, this is what you will make the most of while 3D printing your electronics enclosures.
If you are interested in 3D printing your own enclosure, you can follow our 3D printed enclosure design guide!
What about the future of 3D printing in the electronics industry?
What if in a few years, we could be able to create fully-functional smartphones or multi-material products using additive manufacturing? If these ideas are still dreams today, the innovations related to conductive 3D printing and electronic devices are now showing new opportunities. It might be time to rethink the way we conceive enclosures, circuit boards, and electronic components. From your prototyping process to the production and the management of your supply-chain, additive manufacturing could help you go through new challenges.
As you can see additive manufacturing has a lot to offer for electronics. It could become quite common to 3D print electrical elements. If you have an electronic project, but you don’t know what software you could use to start it: here is our selection of the best CAD software for electronics. Then, don’t hesitate to try out our online 3D printing service. You will just have to upload your 3D file, we will take care of it and send you your 3D printed objects in a few days.
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3D printer models
Looking for 3D printer models? The Internet is filled with sites that offer them for free. We have collected the TOP 10 catalogs that you can use to search and download free models in STL format. We hope you can find what you are looking for.
- Yeggi
- Yobi 3D
- STLfinder
→ myminifactory.com
My Mini Factory is a 3D model depository operated by iMakr, an online store that sells 3D printers and accessories. It also has one of the biggest 3D printer shops in Central London. The site contains 3D models designed by professionals, and all models stored on it are checked for quality. You can also make a request for the desired model, which their designers will create and put in the public domain. Billing itself as a 3D printing social network, MyMiniFactory is a thriving community of makers who love to showcase their creations. Users vote for the best models, which allows popular creations to rise to the top of the list and gain popularity. The site presents models that are stored on its social network, as well as outside it, for example, on the Thingiverse and YouMagine sites.
→ thingiverse.com
The most popular and famous site among 3D printer users, Thingiverse is owned by MakerBot Industries, the creator of the popular Replicator 3D printer series. The site allows users to store and share 3D model files that are used with 3D printers. It's a very popular site and has a large community of people hosting various categories of files on it.
So if you're looking for "cool" printable stuff, Thingiverse is worth a visit. It is a portal designed to provide its users with ways to share their designs and to help print 3D creations. The site has a system that tries to find out what you like. The more you interact with the site, downloading and evaluating various developments, the better its recommendations will be.
→ 3dshook.com
Another online community for 3D printing hobbyists showcasing interesting 3D printer accessories, electronics and most importantly 3D models. The site contains many very interesting models of cars and buildings, as well as various add-ons and spare parts for your 3D printer. A huge catalog of paid and free models for a 3D printer. There are original unique products. Convenient search, navigation, rubricator. 3DShook has over 40 categories and adds over 100 new models to its collection every month. On 3DShook you can always find something for your home, animals, kids or something special for yourself.
→ youmagine.com
YouMagine catalog for Cube series consumer 3D printers manufactured by 3D Systems. The site mainly offers various ways to buy 3D printer supplies and files, but it also has a number of cool free items available, mostly in the Kids section. Some of these elements can be customized by children using an online application. The company offers 3D modeling and publishing tools on its website for both hobbyists and professionals. The site offers a content warehouse where the community hosts and shares models. Registration is required to download files.
→ 123dapp.com
Autodesk 123D is a suite of computer-aided design (CAD) and 3D modeling tools aimed specifically at hobbyists. Along with the toolkit, Autodesk also has a website where users can record their designs and share them with other users. Many of these models can be downloaded and printed using Autodesk as a utility to interface with the MakerBot 3D printer.
The goal of the Autodesk website is to "help engineers build products faster." The site offers tools to help them collaborate on their files. For the casual 3D printing enthusiast, the best part of the site is the large library of free files created by a community of over a million engineers. Registration on the site is required, but the number of files that are then available is worth it.
→ cgtrader.com
Being primarily a place to buy and sell a variety of 3D models (not necessarily just those designed for 3D printers), CGTrader does offer a selection of free models that can be used on 3D printers. The site has a system that tries to find out what you like. The more you interact with the site, downloading and evaluating various developments, the body will have better recommendations.
→ cults3d.com
A French community and marketplace where developers can share or sell their creations. The site has a collection of high quality models that you can download.
Users can follow the work of the designers they like and get instant updates when a new creation is posted on the site. The site's name, Cults, is a backwards spelling of St. Luc, the patron saint of artists. The site also supports English. This is a relatively new community, so the number of its users is not very large yet.
→ instructables.com
The Instructables website is a community where users can share their DIY projects. This also includes products obtained using 3D printers. The site also provides explanations and instructions describing how to build 3D elements, and some designers take the time to answer questions from site members. Instructables allows users to store and organize their 3D printing projects. This is done to help them work together in the future. You can think of this site as a GitHub 3D printing site where users can share their files, discuss projects, and participate in them. The site also offers the ability to make a request, so if you can't find what you're looking for, you can ask the site's community about it.
→ pinshape.com
Pinshape, a marketplace for 3D models, is similar in style (layout, appearance, and ability to capture likes) to the well-known site Pinterest. You can buy models from designers, or download them for printing yourself if they are offered for free. Pinshape allows users to host and share 3D model files on it. Basically, this site acts as an online store where you can buy 3D printed parts, or order your own 3D model to be printed. But if you look closely enough, you can find people who sell their products and also offer the files you need so you can print them yourself.
→ 3dfilemarket.com
A new and growing repository of 3D File Market models. All models are tested for suitability for 3D printing. You can download as many models as you like without registration, although you must provide your email address to access the 3D model files. This is a very simple site aimed at being a repository of model files for 3D printers, and nothing more.
The basic design of the site allows users to put files on it for public access, and download files that they would like to use. The site contains many small, simple 3D models ready to be printed, as well as a good selection of everyday items and even spare parts for 3D printers.
Search engines for 3D models in various formats, including STL for a 3D printer. Use queries in English, these search services collect information about models from all over the Internet.
→ yeggi.com
Yeggi is a search engine that will browse major 3D printing sites to find files compatible with 3D printers. You can also browse some popular searches to get an idea of what the community is currently interested in.
→ yobi3d.com
When in doubt, use yobi3D to search for files that match the desired 3D printer. This tool is useful if you want to search for one thing across all sites at once. A very convenient format filter, fast search, high-quality previews and stl models prepared for 3D printing for printing.
