Filament Extension Atomizer: Novel Aerosol Generation from Polymer Melts and Applications in Additive Manufacturing

PARC, A Xerox Company is developing a novel approach to aerosol generation called Filament Extension Atomization (FEA). FEA is a method that can generate droplets from highly viscoelastic, strain hardening fluids such as molten thermoplastics. FEA-generated droplets from these molten polymers can be narrowly-dispersed and could enable multiple disruptive advances in additive manufacturing. PARC aims to develop this key platform technology into multiple use cases in view of additive manufacturing including 1. particle creation for selective laser sintering; 2. direct ionographic printing of 3D objects and 3. digital deposition of coatings. In particular, since FEA can generate droplets from virtually any thermoplastic regardless of resin type or material grade, PARC FEA has the potential to disrupt polymer-based additive manufacturing by increasing the range of materials that can be used in either existing or new methods. Preliminary data on our research efforts on these use cases will be discussed in this contribution.