Fused deposition modeling-based additive manufacturing process at low temperatures

Abstract

A process for manufacturing an article comprises the steps of: I) applying a filament of an at least partially fused construction material to a support so as to obtain a layer of the construction material which corresponds to a first selected cross-section of the article; II) applying a filament of the at least partially fused construction material to a previously applied layer of the construction material so as to obtain a further layer of the construction material which corresponds to a further selected cross-section of the article and which is bonded to the previously applied layer; and III) repeating step II) until the article is formed. At least steps II) and III) are carried out in a chamber and the construction material comprises a fusible polymer. The fusible polymer has a fusion range (DSC, differential scanning calorimetry; 2nd heating at a heating rate of 5 K/min.) of ≥20° C. to ≤100° C. The fusible polymer further has a complex viscosity |η*| (determined by viscosity measurement in the melt using a plate-plate oscillating viscometer according to ISO 6721-10 at 100° C. and a shear rate of l/s) of ≥10 Pas to ≤1000000 Pas. Finally, the temperature inside the chamber is ≤50° C. The invention also relates to an article manufactured by the process according to the invention, to an article having a substrate and to an article bonded to the substrate, the article being in the form of an adhesive joint or varnish region, and to the use of a particular polyurethane in fused deposition modeling-based additive manufacturing processes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.