Bieglo Group thermoplastic polymer supports project to 3D print structures on the moon

Photo Credit: Bieglo Group.

Bieglo Group (Hamburg, Germany), with its U.S. subsidiary BARplast LLC (Katy, Texas), is supporting a project by Engineering Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal students to design and demonstrate the use of a 3D printer mounted on a lunar rover. Carried out in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and the Research Center for High Performance Polymer and Composite Systems (CREPEC), the 3D printer will be printing structures mainly using in-situ resources such as regolith, a layer of unconsolidated rocky material covering bedrock, as well as Bieglo Group’s high-performance thermoplastic polymer, Aurum. A combination of these two materials — regolith and Aurum — will be used to create the printing material mixture required under harsh lunar environment.

Aurum is a high-heat resistant thermoplastic resin produced by Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) and marketed and distributed by Bieglo in Europe and BARplast LLC in the U.S. Noteworthy features include high temperature stiffness with a glass transition temperature (T_g) of 245ºC —which Bieglo claims is the highest class of T_g of any thermoplastic resin — and excellent sliding properties. Aurum’s coefficient of expansion is also stable up to 245ºC and can be controlled at an equivalent level to aluminum. Aurum also exhibits resistance to radiation, and has a stable coefficient of friction and low friction wear, making it resistant to abrasion caused by lunar dust. Moreover, says Bieglo, Aurum has an exceptionally clean TPI with very small outgas properties.