In recent times copper has been utilised in medical applications such as anti-viral surface coatings and components to reduce the virus residence time in hospitals and clinics. However, pure copper is extremely soft and malleable, which limits its application. Researchers at The University of Queensland have designed an invention that integrates pure copper powder with nanoparticles via ultrasonic vibration and mechanical mixing to reduce the surface reflectance and enable facile fabrication of 3D printed parts.
The fabricated components exhibit over three times higher strength and 100% increase in ductility, while retaining 95% of the thermal and electrical conductivity when benchmarked against pure copper powder. The performance improvement can be attributed to uniform dispersion of nanoparticles. This additive enables homogeneous melting of copper, affording better control over the fabrication process.
Key features
- Achieving high strength and high ductility without a compromise in electrical and thermal properties
- High density Cu parts using standard fibre lasers.