Until today, the electrophotographic transfer of toner powders has been applied successfully in common printing technology for many years. Utilizing the electrophotographic principle for the transfer of polymer powders in the context of additive manufacturing can give a variety of advantages like e.g. the possibility of generating multi-material components or a reduced consumption of powder.Here, the multiple depositions of powder particle-layers via electrostatic forces to create 3D objects have turned out to be a major challenge. Therefore, a new strategy based on the usage of a grounded transfer grid is examined. Due to its positioning above the generated layers, it makes the powder deposition independent of the already produced part height. For improving the particle transfer, geometrical properties of the grid are analyzed with respect to their influence on the efficiency of the powder deposition. Here, particular attention is paid to the manipulation of the electric transfer field, which is applied for accelerating the charged powder particles. The aim is to enhance the coverage and dimensional accuracy of the deposited powder layers by finding a new transfer structure.
展开▼
