Essentium TPU 80A-Z ESD

Essentium is a company at the forefront of additive manufacturing, providing solutions that help facilitate the transition to Industry 4.0. Essentium offers FDM industrial 3D printing solutions and supplies a wide variety of materials with advanced properties to cover any need in sectors such as aeronautics, automotive or the energy sector.

Undoubtedly, Essentium stands out from other technical filament manufacturers for its materials with specific properties, which allow it to offer solutions for very specific applications. This is the case with ESD filaments, including the ESD flexible filament range.

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.

High flexibility and ESD protection

TPU 80A-Z ESD is a TPU-based filament with additives to make it statically conductive.

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.

With its TPU base and Shore 80A hardness, TPU 80A-Z ESD filament is one of the most flexible filaments in Essentium's portfolio and has the impact resistance and chemical resistance of the base material. In addition to these properties, TPU 80A-Z ESD filament is developed to shunt electrostatic electricity.

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

Characteristics and applications in industry

Its most important properties are the following:

• ESD safe
• Soft touch surface
• Highly flexible
• High impact resistance
• Highest elongation at break percentage in its class
• Excellent abrasion and wear 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, 80A-Z ESD TPU is a clean material that does not leave marks on other contact parts.

All this is achieved with a much lower percentage of carbon than other filaments, as little 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.

Thanks to its properties, TPU 80A-Z ESD filament is the lowest hardness material with ESD properties in Essentium's catalogue. This filament has a low friction surface, so it can be printed on almost any desktop FDM 3D printer on the market, bearing in mind that it is advisable to use a direct extrusion system to facilitate the feeding of the material and avoid jams.

This filament is ideal for the manufacture of end-use parts. Thanks to its mechanical and chemical properties, the TPU 80A-Z ESD filament allows 3D printing of end-use parts and components quickly, accurately and with good repeatability, making it possible in some cases to produce parts that would be very complex using other manufacturing methods or technologies.

Some specific applications of the TPU 80A-Z ESD filament would be:

• Electronic products
• ESD Safety Devices
• Templates
• Bumpers
• Anti-vibration pads
• Isolation mounts
• Seals, suction cups or plugs
• Straps

All these applications can be very useful in all kinds 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.