Conductive materials?

[ozonostudio]

I’m trying to print a prototype for a mobile device and I want to know what materials I can use for it? because on my tests if I use PLA or ABS and under that I put a conductive rubber nothing happens, the electricity from my finger doesn’t go through the material, so I was thinking If a silicon material can be used to achieve this, and what materials or brands can you recommend?

I need 2 things:

The material needs to be flexible, because I’m trying to make buttons like the ones used on TV controls or old remotes, almost the same mechanism, except that on the control the conductive material close a circuit that already have electricity.

A second material rigid like ABS or PLA that also can be conductive (maybe Graphite? but something white)

[bitflung]

I’m interested in the same high level concept, so i’m following this post. I don’t have answers for you, but I think your question suggests some [edit: potential answers] already:

1. see this instructables for help with silicone rubber keypads (including STL files as a template): http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-6-Button-Silicone-Rubber-Keypad/

2. alternatively you could use a resistive sheet: Pressure-Sensitive Conductive Sheet (Velostat/Linqstat) : ID 1361 : $4.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

3. conductive PLA might not be available in white; i’ve never seen it in that color anyway. but see this possible filament (in the wrong color for you): https://www.blackmagic3d.com/Conductive-p/grphn-pla.htm

-jared

[Polariz3d]

Hi @ozonostudio,

I believe you want quite a few things all happening simultaneously.

So, you want 2 materials, one flexible an another rigid, both conductive, right?

For the flexible probably I would stick to conductive rubber. It is worth noticing that rubber keypads are not fully conductive but under each key they have a small conductive pad to create the short. If this is not the case, maybe it would be useful to clarify what application requires electricity to pass though your finger…

Conductive plastics in colours different from black do exist, though they are extremely uncommon. This because most conductive plastic are based on carbon black, carbon nanotubes or graphene, all black. Silver compounds are sometimes used for conductivity, but this is more realm of coatings than infused polymers. As for 3D Printing, I’ve never seen anything other than black. I imagine you should explore conductive coatings or other workarounds.

An example could be having “conductive channels” going through the rigid substrates, a bit like vias on a PCB. They could be filled with a conductive paste or even some conductive wire or thread.

The solution in this case, i believe, really depends on your application and what workaround suits you best.

Sorry I cant help more.

[Ahaber]

I don’t completely understand what you are looking for. For flexible materials, there are many options such as tpe, tpu, and other blends which you can research, and all of them that I know of are not conductive. As far as conductive filaments go there are a couple of them like proto-pasta’s conductive pla https://www.proto-pasta.com/products/conductive-pla and Black Magic 3D’s conductive graphene filament https://www.blackmagic3d.com/Conductive-p/grphn-pla.htm

The main problem with the flexible filaments is that they can get stuck in your extruder and if you have a Bowden style printer you probably will only have success with the more rigid flexible materials, and you will need to print at very slow speeds.

The main problem with the conductive filaments is that they have a relatively high resistivity, so if you are trying to build a circuit with it you will need very large tracks of it or it won’t conduct your signals or carry power. You may find the best way around this is just to put groves in a 3d printed plastic base and insert wires into them after printing.

[steveprinters29]

Most of the common 3D printing materials such as ABS and PLA are not normally conductive. If you wish to develop objects relating mobile devices, go for advanced materials such as graphene, carbon black, conductive silver and carbon black etc.

While these are the materials used for inner critical components, the outer ones could be produced using the regular PETG, Nylons or ABS etc.