3D printing of soft actuators in nano-filled shape memory thermoplastic polyurethane
Luca Burratti, Denise Bellisario, Fabrizio Quadrini, Leandro Iorio, Loredana Santo
Abstract. Today new horizons have opened thanks to the integration of additive manufacturing and shape memory polymers (SMP). Additive manufacturing by fused deposition modelling (FDM) is used to develop new concept soft robotics with SMP. A thermoplastic polyurethane SMP for biomedical uses has been modified by aluminum nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes to produce an innovative SMP. The new composite has been extruded to produce the 3D printing wire, which has been used to print a three-dimensional structure. The SM behavior of the composite has been investigated by calorimetry and recovery properties. For comparison the same studies have been carried out to pristine thermoplastic polyurethane. Differential scanning calorimetry, shape fixity and shape recovery ratios, recovery time and recovery force have been investigated for 3D printed structures of pristine and composite samples. The composite demonstrated better results in terms of recovery properties with respect to the pristine material. For this reason, the composite can be a good candidate for soft robotics applications.
Keywords
Shape Memory Polymers, 3D Printing, Soft Robotics, Smart Materials
Published online 5/7/2025, 11 pages
Copyright © 2025 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Luca Burratti, Denise Bellisario, Fabrizio Quadrini, Leandro Iorio, Loredana Santo, 3D printing of soft actuators in nano-filled shape memory thermoplastic polyurethane, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 54, pp 2047-2057, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903599-220
The article was published as article 220 of the book Material Forming
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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