Research on Processing and Properties of 4D Printed Thermoplastic Polyurethane/NdFeB Magnetic Composites

Abstract

It is gradually unable for the traditional 3D printing technology to meet the requirements of components in the high-end manufacturing field. The material-structure-functional integrated additive manufacturing, that is, 4D printing technology will be a new development direction. Therefore, in this work, the thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU)/NdFeB magnetic composite is applied into the selective laser sintering (SLS) process to fabricate parts with different NdFeB content. The particle size and its distribution and micromorphology of the composite powder are investigated. The chemical group evolution before and after forming, crystal structure, mechanical properties and deformation behavior of the SLS printed parts are also studied. The results show that the NdFeB content have influence on the mechanical properties and deformation behavior of the composite parts. The force exerted on the composite parts enhances with the increase of NdFeB content. The fabricated part with 30 wt% NdFeB have the best tensile strength. In this study, the TPU/NdFeB composite material system is used as an innovative 4D printing material. The formed magnetic intelligent component can deform when exposed to magnetic field, which indicate the magnetic field driven 4D printing is realized. As a result, this work has guiding significance for the development of 4D printed magnetic intelligent components.