PLATE COMPRISING 1 -BUTENE POLYMER FOR 3D PRINTER

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a base plate material comprising 1-butene based polymer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] An extrusion-based 3D printer is used to build a 3D model from a digital representation of the 3D model in a layer-by-layer manner by extruding a flowable modeling material. For example, a filament of the modeling material is extruded through an extrusion tip carried by an extrusion head, and is deposited as a sequence of roads on a substrate in an x-y plane. The melted material can also derive from a direct deposition from a screw extruder or similar, or sintered from powders (SLS) The extruded modeling material fuses to previously deposited modeling material, and solidifies upon a drop in temperature. For example, the position of the extrusion head relative to the substrate is then incremented along a z-axis (perpendicular to the x-y plane), and the process is then repeated to form a 3D model resembling the digital representation. Movement of the extrusion head with respect to the substrate is performed under computer control, in accordance with build data that represents the 3D model. The build data is obtained by initially slicing the digital representation of the 3D model into multiple horizontally sliced layers. Then, for each sliced layer, the host computer generates a build path for depositing roads of modeling material to form the 3D model.

[0003] In the printing process the plate plays an important role, in fact the plate has to hold the printing object un such a way that the latter does not move during the printing but allowing the object to be easily removed when the printing is terminated.

[0004] In the art various substance are used depending also to the material to be printed. For example ABS is printed with good results on a heated glass plated covered with vinylic glue.

[0005] However there is the need in the art for new materials to be used as plate especially for printing polyolefin based materials. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The applicant found that a plate comprising as a top layer a sheet or film comprising 1-butene based copolymer containing from 0 to 70 wt of ethylene, propylene or alpha olefins of formula CH ₂ =CHR, wherein R is a C ₃ -C ₂₀ alkyl radical preferably C ₃ -Q ₀ alkyl radical can be advantageously used as plate for extrusion-based 3D printing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] Figure 1 is the front view of the sample used in the print tests of the examples. The measure are given in mm, the sample once completely printed is 5 mm thick.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] The applicant found that a plate for use in an extrusion-based additive manufacturing system comprising as a top layer a sheet or film comprising 1-butene based copolymer containing from 0 to 70 wt of ethylene, propylene or alpha olefins of formula CH ₂ =CHR, wherein R is a C ₃ -C ₁₀ alkyl radical preferably C ₃ -C ₈ alkyl radical can be advantageously used as plate for extrusion-based 3D printing.

[0009] For the purpose of this disclosure the term sheet is referred to sheet having thickness higher than 0.5 mm. For the purpose of this disclosure the term film is referred to sheet having thickness lower than 0.5 mm.

[0010] The other layers of the plate can be made of various materials such as polystyrene polypropylene, metals such as aluminum and can be also an heating plate, or a mono or multilayer film. The top layer of said plate comprises at least 30 wt preferably at least 50 wt , more preferably at least 70 wt even more preferably at least 85 wt ; still even more preferably more than 99 wt of 1-butene based copolymer containing from 0 to 50 wt of ethylene, propylene or alpha olefins of formula CH ₂ =CHR, wherein R is a C ₃ -C ₁₀ alkyl radical preferably C3-C ₈ alkyl radical. The plate can also be made entirely of a sheet or film of 1-butene based copolymer object of the present disclosure in this case the top layer is the only layer of the plate.

[0011] Preferably the 1-butene based copolymers contains from 0 to 50 wt of ethylene, propylene, 1-hexene or 1-octene as comonomers, more preferably the comonomers are ethylene and propylene. The comonomer contents preferably range from 2 to 20 wt ; more preferably from 4 to 10 wt . More preferably the 1-butene based copolymer is 1-butene homopolymer. [0012] The comonomer content is measured by using 13 C-NMR.

[0013] The 1-butene based copolymers is isotactic, i.e. the mmmm pentads measured with C ¹³ NMR is higher than 50 mol%; preferably higher than 80 mol .

[0014] The 1-butene based copolymers used in the present disclosure are commercial grades, such as PB-0110M, PB-03000M sold by lyondellbasell.

[0015] The Melt flow rate (MFR ISO 1133 (190°C, 2.16 Kg) of the 1-butene based copolymer of the present disclosure ranges preferably from 0.5 to 500.0 g/10 min; more preferably from 2.0 to 50.0 g/10 min.

[0016] When a plate object of the present disclosure is used in a 3D printing process it is possible to realize the right adhesion force so that the object to be printed is stable during the printing process but it can be removed easily when the printed process ended and cohesion jointing is avoided.

[0017] Since the adhesion of the object on the plate is achieved by using only the surface of the plate itself the 1-butene based copolymers object of the present disclosure can be used even only as a film to be put on the plate itself as top layer. The film can be mono or multilayer and can content an adhesive on one or both sides This gives the advantage that the film can be easily replaced.

[0018] The plate object of the present invention can be also heated during the printing process, even if often not necessary, to improve the adhesion.

[0019] The plate can be used with different filaments such as propylene -based filaments, nylon based filaments ABS and PLA based filaments.

[0020] The following examples are given to illustrate and not to limit the present invention.

EXAMPLES

[0021] The data of the propylene polymer materials were obtained according to the following methods:

[0022] Melt flow rate (MFR)

[0023] The melt flow rate MFR of the polymer was determined according to ISO 1133 (230°C, 2.16 Kg or 190°C;/2,16 kg)

[0024] The following commercial polymers have been used for the plates [0025] PB0300M polybutene homopolymer having an MFR of 4 g/10 min (190°C, 2.16 Kg) and a mmmm pentads higher than50 mol%

[0026] Adflex Q100F is an heterophasic propylene ethylene copolymer having an MFR of 0.6 g/10 min (230°C, 2.16 Kg) sold by Lyondellbasell

[0027] Plates have been obtained by injection moulding to produce a sheet having a thicknes of about 2 mm.

[0028] Filaments

[0029] Polymers PP4 and PP5 have been extruted to form a filament having 1.75 mm of diameter.

PP4 is commercial grade ADSYL 5C30F sold by LyondellBasell

PP5 is commercial grade RP 210M sold by LyondellBasell

Commercial PLA filament has been further used

[0030] Print test

[0031] The printer was a 3D Rostock delta printer. The printer conditions are the followings:

[0032] The sample to be printed is reported in Fig 1. For each filament two printer tests have been carried out at 40°C and room temperature (i.e. no heating applied). At the end of the printing the adhesion of the plate has been verified The results are reported on table 1. Table 1

* comparative

RT room temperature

A= the joint is adhesive and can be removed

C= the joint is cohesive

0= no adeshion or coeshion

3= perfect adhesion or cohesion

Thus A value of A3 means that the adhesion is perfect and the object can be printed and removed. From table 1 clearly results that a plate based on 1-butene polymer (PB0300M) can be advantageously used giving perfect adhesion with various materials while the plates of the comparative examples does not gives adhesion or the adhesion is poor and the object cannot be printed