Glass bead filled Polyetherketone (PEK) composite by High Temperature Laser Sintering (HT-LS)

• First study investigating the mechanical and thermal behaviour of laser sintered glass bead filled PEK composite (LS-GB/PEK).
• The LS-GB/PEK composite shows anisotropic thermal expansion property.
• Additional 20% glass bead increases the hardness by 7% and reduces CTE up to 16%.
• The CTE of the LS-Glass/PEK composite simulated by rule of mixture agrees with the experimental data.

Thermal expansion behaviour and mechanical performance of high temperature laser sintered PEK (LS-PEK) and glass bead filled PEK composite (LS-GB/PEK) are reported and discussed for the first time. The laser sintered PEK and its composite show anisotropic thermal expansion properties related with their multilayer structure created by the laser sintering method. Compared with the PEK manufactured by conventional injection moulding (IM-PEK), LS-PEK has a 10% lower tensile strength but a higher hardness due to its greater crystallinity. Addition of glass bead to PEK increases the hardness of PEK without affecting the ultimate tensile strength and also improves the thermal stability of laser sintered parts. The rule of mixtures is applied to simulate the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the LS-GB/PEK composite structures and compare with experimental results. The measured CTE values match the calculated results below Tg and deviate slightly from the simulated trend line above Tg.

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