Essentium TPU 95A-Z ESD

Essentium is a manufacturer of professional FDM 3D printing equipment and materials at the forefront of additive manufacturing. Essentium stands out from other manufacturers for its development of technical materials oriented to specific applications in sectors such as aeronautics, automotive or the energy sector.

Undoubtedly, one of the most outstanding sets of materials in Essentium's catalogue is ESD materials. Essentium has taken into account the diverse needs of companies and has developed filaments with different compositions and characteristics, offering concrete and specific solutions. Therefore, it has high temperature ESD filaments or flexible ESD materials, differentiating itself from other manufacturers who only have standard ESD materials such as ABS.

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) is the sudden transfer of electrical charge from one object to another. This charge transfer sometimes results in a visible and even audible spark. In an electronics manufacturing environment, such an event can cause catastrophic damage to sensitive electronic devices and integrated circuits. For this reason, it is necessary to minimise the risks by using ESD-safe materials.

Image 1: Electrostatic discharge. Source: Essentium.

Flexible ESD filament

Within the range of flexible ESD filaments is the TPU 95A-Z ESD filament, a static conductive TPU-based filament.

TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) is a thermoplastic, more specifically a linear elastomer polymer belonging to the polyurethane family. Within TPU, different hardness ranges can be found. In the field of FDM 3D printing, hardness is usually indicated by the Shore A or Shore D scales, which perfectly cover the hardness ranges of thermoplastics for AM.

Video 1: Essentium Materials Guide: ESD. Source: Essentium.

TPU 95A-Z ESD filament has a 95A Shore hardness, resulting in a medium-hard filament with good flexibility, impact resistance and chemical resistance typical of the base material. In addition to these properties, TPU 95A-Z ESD filament is developed to divert electrostatic electricity.

Characteristics and applications in industry

Its most important properties are the following:

• ESD safe
• Flexible
• High tensile strength
• High elongation at break percentage
• Excellent abrasion, tear and wear resistance
• High impact resistance
• Excellent vibration damping
• Low temperature flexibility
• Excellent resistance to chemicals, solvents, oil and ozone

Video 2: Characteristics of ESD filaments. Source: Essentium.

Typically, most ESD filaments contain relatively high percentages of carbon (15-25%), modifying the characteristics of the base polymer, potentially compromising its performance and leading to possible contact marks on other materials. Unlike these filaments, Essentium's ESD filaments are designed to provide the necessary surface resistance properties without compromising the performance of the base polymer, in this case TPU. In addition, 95A-Z ESD TPU is a clean material that will not mark other parts on contact.

All this is achieved with a much lower percentage of carbon than other filaments, as low as 0.01%, thanks to the multi-layer technology developed by Essentium. This technology uses high purity carbon nanotubes combined with a proprietary extrusion process to produce a multilayer filament that concentrates the carbon nanotubes on the surface of the filament rather than throughout the volume of the material.

Image 2: Multi-layer technology developed by Essentium. Source: Essentium.

TPU 95A-Z ESD filament is a material with easy processing due to its low friction surface, which facilitates and guarantees a smooth feeding of the material during the printing process. It can be printed on almost any desktop FDM 3D printer on the market and can be 3D printed even with a bowden extrusion system.

All in all, TPU 95A-Z ESD filament has an excellent balance between its elongation, impact and tensile strength properties, combined with its electrostatic electrical conductivity. For all these reasons, it is an ideal material for the manufacture of parts such as:

• Rapid prototyping: TPU 95A-Z ESD enables rapid prototyping to bring ideas to life with great immediacy, allowing different models or improvements on an initial design to be materialised, tested and presented until the desired result is achieved.
• End-use parts: Thanks to its mechanical and chemical properties, the TPU 95A-Z ESD filament allows 3D printing of end-use parts and components quickly, accurately and with good repeatability, enabling in some cases the production of parts that would be very complex using other manufacturing methods or technologies.

Some specific applications of TPU 95A-Z ESD filament would be the manufacture of electronic products, ESD safety devices and inserts, anti-vibration pads, bushings, vibration isolation for automobiles, grips, flexible tubes or hoses, making it very useful for all types of industries. Another common application of this material is to make dust-free parts for laboratories and high development centres, as most commonly used plastic materials attract dust and dirt by accumulating static electricity.