Mechnano PK ESD SLS material qualified by Farsoon

Farsoon, a global manufacturer and supplier of industrial-level polymer and metal laser sintering systems, has approved the PK ESD from Mechnano for use on their 252P Series and Flight 403P Series machines.

“We are excited to work with Mechnano’s innovative D’Func coating,” said Don Xu, managing director of Farsoon Americas Corp. “Applied to materials such as PK5000, this coating and powder combination has the potential to open up new avenues of additive manufacturing applications.”

Mechnano’s laser sintering powder combines Jabil’s PK 5000 engineered powder with a coating formulation utilizing Mechnano’s technology, D’Func (Discrete, Dispersed, and Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes). The D’Func-based coating introduces nano-uniform electrostatic dissipative properties to Laser Sintered parts.

The Mechnano material retains the unique advantages of PK 5000—eco-friendly parts with high impact strength, chemical and abrasion resistance, and improved elongation over general-purpose nylons—to withstand functional testing and production use.

Thanks to D’Func, PK ESD parts have Nano-Uniform ESD at 107 ohms surface resistivity (independent of the build orientation and powder refresh rate), while closely retaining PK 5000’s impressive mechanical performance and enabling exciting improvements including a 25% increase in Impact Resistance to 103.6 J/m, a 20% increase in Elongation at Break to 44% and no break flexural specimens within 5% strain limit of ASTM D790 Procedure A & B tests.

“PK ESD’s nano uniformity is the answer to alternative ESD powder and filament solutions with unpredictable ESD performance,” said Mechnano President Bryce Keeler. “With Farsoon, we’re enabling the AM market by eliminating expensive and time-consuming requirements to test and validate static-dissipative performance for each part. And the fact we are doing this with a high-performance and eco-friendly material makes it even more compelling.”

PK ESD on Farsoon machines fabricates accurate, high-performance parts—and is an excellent quick-turn solution for end-use applications such as drones (due to PK ESD’s high impact resistance), fuel systems (PK ESD’s fuel resistance and static-dissipative properties), and durable ESD tooling (high elongation at break).