Semi-crystalline consumable materials for electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system

A method for printing a three-dimensional part with an electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system having an electrophotography engine, a transfer medium, and a layer transfusion assembly, the method comprising:

• providing a part material to the electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system, the part material compositionally comprising a charge control agent, and a semi-crystalline thermoplastic material wherein the semi-crystalline thermoplastic material comprises the polyamide, and wherein the polyamide comprises polycarpolactum (PA6), polyhexamethyleneaidpamide (PA6,6), polyhexamethylenenonamide (PA6,9), polyhexamethylenesebacamide (PA6,10), polyamide 6/12 (PA6,12), polyenantholactum (PA7), polyundecanolactum (PA11), polylaurolactam (PA12), or mixtures thereof, and has a powder form;
• triboelectrically charging the part material to a Q/M ratio having a negative charge or a positive charge, and a magnitude ranging from about 5 micro-Coulombs/gram to about 50 micro-Coulombs/gram;
• developing layers of the three-dimensional part from the charged part material with the electrophotography engine;
• electrostatically attracting the developed layers from the electrophotography engine to the transfer medium;
• moving the attracted layers to the layer transfusion assembly with the transfer medium;
• and
• transfusing the moved layers to previously-printed layers of the three-dimensional part with the layer transfusion assembly.

A part material for printing three-dimensional parts with an electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system, the part material comprising:

• a composition comprising:
• a semi-crystalline thermoplastic material, wherein the semi-crystalline thermoplastic material comprises the polyaryletherketone, and wherein the polyaryletherketone comprises polyetherketone (PEK), polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyetheretherketoneketone (PEEKK), polyetherketoneetherketoneketone (PEKEKK), or mixtures thereof;
• and
• a charge control agent;
• wherein the part material is provided in a powder form wherein the powder form also has a D90/D50 particle size distribution and a D50/D10 particle size distribution each ranging from about 1.00 to about 1.40;
• and
• wherein the part material is configured for use in the electrophotography-based additive manufacturing system having a layer transfusion assembly for printing the three-dimensional parts in a layer-by-layer manner.