The combination of different additive manufacturing techniques to produce freeform products with multifunctional properties is gaining more and more popularity. In the presented research Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) is combined with extrusion based 3D printing. AJP starts from an ink to create micro tracks, unlike extrusion based 3D printers where the extruded material usually has a resolution of tenths of millimeters. AJP can therefore be a complementary technique for extrusion based 3D printing, in this manner fine high resolution features can be added onto relatively fast produced extrusion based 3D printed parts. Furthermore, AJP can be used to produce electrically conductive tracks to create interconnects, inductors, capacitors, strain gauges, etcIn this paper the creation of AJP manufactured interconnects on extrusion based 3D printed substrates is investigated. Important AJP process parameters to take into account are flow rates of the aerosol, flow rate of the sheath gas, temperature settings of the ink and substrate, platform speed and nozzle to substrate distance. To obtain reliable results, the AJP process parameters are optimized for printing single layered and multilayered silver ink tracks on extrusion based 3D printed surfaces. Important quality output parameters include the dimensions and the electrical properties of the printed interconnects.
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