Evaluation of 3D printed materials used to print WR10 horn antennas

Paper in proceedings, 2016

A WR10 waveguide horn antenna is 3D printed with three different materials. The antennas are printed on a fusion deposition modeling delta 3D printer built in house at Chalmers University of Technology. The different plastic materials used are an electrically conductive Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a thermally conductive polylactic acid containing 35% copper, and a tough Amphora polymer containing at least 20% carbon fiber. The antennas are all printed with a 0.25 mm nozzle and 100 μm layer thickness and the software settings are tuned to give maximum quality for each material. The three 3D printed horn antennas are compared when it comes to cost, time and material properties.