Essentium PEKK

Essentium is a US company with subdivisions in Asia and Europe. Their product portfolio includes industrial 3D printers and technical filament. Their innovative solutions are revolutionizing the 3D printing world and helping many companies seamlessly integrate into Industry 4.0. Thanks to Essentium, many manufacturers are able to prototype and manufacture in-house on a large scale, in an affordable and quick fashion. The Essentium portfolio contains numerous high-end technical filaments, mostly polymers and blends optimized for exceptional strength, flexibility and high mechanical performance in the most demanding conditions. The Essentium filaments have many applications across numerous disciplines, such as aerospace and defense, automotive, biomedical, contract manufacturing, consumer goods, and electronic manufacturing.

Advanced technical filament

The Essentium PEKK filament belongs to the family of advanced filaments and it is mostly dedicated to the aerospace and defense industries. The Essentium PEKK filament was made with Arkema 6002 Kepstan™ resin. PEKK stands for polyetherketoneketone - a semi-crystalline thermoplastic from the PAEK (poliartercetona) family of polymers. PEKK was first developed in 1988 by Dupont for the aerospace industry. At the beginning of the 21st century the composition of PEKK was further improved by Oxford Performance Materials, bought by Arkema in 2009.

PEKK is very similar to PEEK in terms of performance. There are, however, some differences that make PEKK a superior material. The main distinguishing feature is the ether/ketone ratio. PEKK has more ketone bonds, which are more flexible than ether links. This makes the polymer chains of PEKK more rigid and elevates the glass transition temperature and the melting temperature (the extrusion temperature of the Essentium PEKK is between 340 - 400 ºC). Furthermore, the naturally slow crystallization rate of PEKK gives it some properties of an amorphous polymer. The result is that PEKK is less sensitive to cooling, which improves its adhesion to the printing base and reduces the risk of warping and dimensional imprecision, making PEKK a very cooperative material in terms of 3D printing. The melting temperature and the speed of crystallization of PEKK can be modified by varying the position of the ketone bonds in PEKK’s aroma cycle. What’s more, PEKK has better aesthetic properties, it is quite lightweight (no influence on performance), and it is more resistant to use, friction, abrasion and chemicals. Among PEKK’s advanced properties are the great insulation capacity and good dielectric stability, which makes it viable for applications in electronics. Moreover, PEKK is inherently flame retardant and it doesn’t produce toxic smoke, which complies with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) FAR 25.853 requirements and makes the Essentium PEKK filament suitable for flight-ready components.

Image 1. Parts 3D printed with the Essentium PEKK filament. Source: Essentium.

The high-performance Essentium PEKK filament possesses all those properties. This makes it the ideal material for highly advanced applications where the 3D printed pieces need to be reliable, durable, and resistant to abrasion by constant use, able to handle very high temperatures and pressures over long periods of time, and able to withstand contact with chemicals. Essentium recommends using the PEKK filament in the aerospace industry, the oil and gas industry, in military contexts, in the railway industry, in semiconductor manufacturing, in chemical processing and other industrial applications where a strong, light and resistant is required to perform advanced and reliable tasks in harsh and extreme environments.