Colloquia

Summary

Additive manufacturing has experienced significant growth in recent years. One area of interest within additive manufacturing is 4D-printing, which allows printed objects to change shape after printing. Previous research has demonstrated that the addition of magnetic powder to a shape memory polymer can activate its shape memory behaviour using a magnetic field. In this study, magnetite is used as the magnetic material and PLA is used as the matrix material. This report investigates a new methodology for producing a magnetic composite material, which is then used to create a filament. The filament is used to produce a flexible part using 3D printing technology. In the end the possibility to actuate this part with a magnetic field is examined. The methodology was found to result in good dispersion, resulting in a homogeneous material, and a filament that met the required tolerances.  The research found that the magnetite did not have sufficient retentivity to be actuated. Further investigation is required using the proposed methodology with other magnetic materials to develop a magnetic composite material that can be actuated by a magnetic field.