K Khodabakhshi - Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, Tehran, Iran

The main aim of this project was to investigate the possibility of manufacturing 3D parts of polyamide (nylon or PA) 6 by inkjetting its monomer caprolactam (CL). Two polymerisation mixtures of CL-catalyst (mixture A) and CL-activator (mixture B) are jetted separately using conventional jetting heads and polymerise shortly after heating. Sodium caprolactamate (SCL) was used as catalyst and N-acetylcaprolactam (ACL) was used as activator. The influence of polymerisation conditions was investigated and optimised. The crystallinity of the polymer produced in the DSC decreased with increase in polymerisation temperature. Hot stage microscopy produced evidence for simultaneous polymerisation and crystallisation processes on heating

Caprolactam, ROP, additive manufacturing, polyamide 6, Optimizing