2018 IEEE 4th Information Technology and Mechatronics Engineering Conference (ITOEC 2018)

3D Mechatronic Structures via Hybrid Additive

Manufacturing Technology
Ji Li*, Yang Wang, Gengzhao Xiang, Handa Liu, Jiangling He
Key Laboratory of MEMS of the Ministry of Education, Southeast University,
Nanjing, China
Email: j.li5@seu.edu.cn

Abstract—For rapid manufacturing of customized 3D*
mechatronic structures, this work proposes a hybrid additive
manufacturing technology combining dual-material fused
deposition modeling (FDM) and selective electroless plating.
High-conductive metallic film can be selectively deposited on 3D
printed plastic structures made of ABS and PETG plastics. With
current used 0.4 mm nozzle, FDM printer could produce the
finest conductor of about 0.5 mm wide. Through four-point
probe measurement, EDS inspection and SEM cross-section
analysis, it was found that the minimal resistivity of Ni-P film
was identified to be approximate 8.4 × 10−5 Ω ꞏ cm, when the
electroless plating was conducted at 50 °C and pH 8.5. A
demonstrator of 3D LED blinking circuit was developed to testify
the feasibility and potential of this technology in industry
applications.
Keywords—3D mechatronics, hybrid additive manufacturing,
3D printing , fused deposition modelling, electroless plating
I. INTRODUCTION
Hybrid additive manufacturing is now an important
research arena in the additive manufacturing (AM)/3D printing
area. Hybrid additive manufacturing combines additive
manufacturing processes and traditional manufacturing
technologies such as CNC machining, direct writing (DW),
laser surface treatment etc.. This enables the creation of
complex three-dimensional structures capable of providing
electromechanical functionality [1]. Due to the manufacturing
flexibility, this technology has been applied in many industrial
fields, in particular medical treatment, automotive, aviation and
aerospace that are eager for the capability of rapid customizing
high-value, fully functional 3D mechatronics.
Early works integrated direct writing (DW) with different
types of AM processes to create 3D structures with embedded
electronics. Direct writing is a versatile group of processes
such as inkjet printing, dispensing process, aerosol jet printing
that are able to deposit various materials onto different types of
substrates based on a digital design layout [2]. The first hybrid
additive manufacturing equipment was developed by Ryan
Wicker’s group at University of Texas at El Paso via
integrating dispenser within a stereolithography (SL) apparatus.
This system successfully created a series of 3D mechatronic
devices, such as conformal RF antenna [3], Hall effect sensor
[4], and a game die [5]. They also integrated dispensing
module with FDM platform to create 3D electronic products
[4]. Inkjet printing has been utilized to make 3D wiring on the
surface of a shape deposition manufacturing (SDM) made 3D
substrate [6]. Aerosol jet was adopted by Stratasys Ltd. and
Optomec Inc. to embed sensors and antennas within the FDM
printed drone wings [7]. The electrically conductive adhesives
(ECAs) used in these DW processes, e.g. silver nanoparticle
ink, graphite paste etc., are mixtures of conductive particles
and polymer binders. They could only provide limited
electrical conductivity and lower mechanical strength. This
largely restricts the final performance of 3D mechatronic
devices.
To solve the problems mentioned above, this paper
proposes a new hybrid manufacturing technology integrating
dual-material FDM 3D printing and selective electroless
plating. In this case, metallic film could be selectively
deposited on 3D substrate which provided higher electrical
conductivity compared with electrically conductive adhesives.
The fabrication precision of FDM printing process was
characterized by optical microscopy. The electrical
conductivity of plated metallic film was identified via scanning
electron microscope (SEM) and four-point probe measurement.
A 3D LED blinking demonstrator circuit was fabricated to
verify the feasibility of this technology.
II. MANUFACTURING METHODOLOGY
A. Process chain
The process chain of proposed hybrid additive
manufacturing technology is shown in Fig. 1. First, the 3D
structure consisting of platable (ABS) and nonplatable (PETG)
plastics was fabricated via using a FDM dual-material 3D
printer. After surface etching, only platable plastic could
absorb electroless plating catalysts in activation step. Thus,
metallic film was only deposited on the surface of platable
plastic to create 3D circuitry during electroless plating. Finally,
electronic components were mounted on the 3D structure to
realize a full-functional 3D electronic system.

*
Corresponding author.

978-1-5386-5373-9/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1054


Fig. 1. Process chain of proposed hybrid additive manufacturing technology.
B. FDM dual-material printing
Test samples were fabricated by an Ultimaker 3 Extended
dual-material FDM printer (Ultimaker B.V., The Netherlands).
The fabrication process was planned using Ultimaker Cura
software (version: 3.2.1) according to 3D model. The print
head and the hot bed can reach temperatures up to 280 °C and
100 °C, respectively. This enables the successful printing of
not only normal PLA filament but also ABS, PC, PETG
filaments that normally need higher processing temperature.
C. Electroless nickel plating
Electroless plating is able to deposite a range of metallic
materials such as copper, silver, and nickel. Nickel possesses
better chemical stability and durability for both normal and
harsh application environment compared with other
courterparts. Moreover, electroless nickel bath can be easily
maintained without any automatic analysis equipment. Thus,
electroless nickel plating was adopted for the metallization of
3D structures in this work. The electroless nickel plating
process included four main steps: (1) etching, (2) activation, (3)
acceleration, and (4) metal plating:
 FDM structure was first ultrasonically cleaned in
isopropanol (C3H8O), and then immersed in an etchant
called “chrome-sulfuric” solvent made of 410g/L
chromium trioxide (CrO3) and 390 g/L sulfuric acid
(H2SO4) at 65°C. The etching time was set to be 7 min
in order to thoroughly roughen the surface of platable
plastic. Therefore, the platable plastic surface was
modified to be hydrophilic and porous, which
enhanced the chances of catalyst absorption and also
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provided anchor points for the following deposited
metallic film.
 Activation: activation step was performed via dipping
the 3D structure into an solution consisting of Pd/Sn
colloidal catalyst (Noviganth Activator PL, Atotech
GmbH, Berlin, Germany). The temperature and time
were adjusted to be 25°C and 3 mins. The solution
prescription and experiment conditions were
recommended by the catalyst supplier, which provided
a sound circumstance for Pd/Sn hydrosol absorption
and long period use. Finally, a layer of stannous,
stannic and palladium compounds was absorbed on the
surface of the etched plastic.
 Acceleration: acceleration processing promoted the
reduction of Pd2+ to Pd elementary particles by Sn2+
ions, and furthermore disolved excess tin colloid to
expose Pd catalyst points. This solution was also
capable of washing away the Pd catalysts attached on
the surface of non-platable plastic. The acceleration
solution contained 40g/L ADHEMAX® Accelerator 1
(Atotech GmbH, Berlin, Germany) and 22.5 ml/L
H2SO4. The reaction temperature was kept at 45°C as
recommended by the manufacturer.
 Metal plating: the samples were plated in an alkaline
nickel bath (Noviganth Ni HC, Atotech GmbH, Berlin,
Germany). The plating condition was 50°C reaction
temperature and pH 8.5 as suggested by the supplier.
To explore the effects of plating time on the electrical
performance of nickel film, test samples were plated
for 5, 10, 30, 60, and 120 minutes, respectively. The
temperature of electroless nickel bath was maintained
using IKA RCT digital plate (IKA®-Werke GmbH &
Co. KG, Germany) and the pH value was measured by
a pH sensor (PHS-25, Shanghai INESA Scientific
Instrument Co.,Ltd., China).

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Surface modification due to etching
The SEM images of ABS and PETG surfaces before and
after etching were demonstrated in Figure 3. Micro-holes were
observed on ABS surface after 7 min etching (Figure 3b).
Compared with ABS samples, PETG shew slight roughening
after same time treatment (Figure 3d). There was no micro-hole
found on its surface.

Fig. 3. SEM images of ABS and PETG surfaces before and after etching.
The etching results of ABS and PETG plastics could be
explained by their chemical structures (Fig. 4). ABS is a two-
phase terpolymer composed of a continuous styrene–
acrylonitrile (SAN) phase and a dispersed polybutadiene phase.
The chrome-sulfuric etchant is able to etch both SAN and
polybutadiene phase, but the polybutadiene is etched more
rapidly due to its C=C double bond scission. Thus, the
removed polybutadiene particles left a range of micro-holes in
the SAN matrix. For PETG plastic, there is no C=C double
bond that can be easily oxidized. Thus, PETG shew much
better etching resistance to chrome-sulfuric solution. Moreover,
due to its single phase nature, the slight surface etching was
homogenously and resulted in less roughening.
Fig. 4. Chemical structure unit of ABS and PETG plastics.
B. Fabrication precision of FDM dual-material printing
Miniaturizing line width of conductor is vital for enhancing
the integration grade of electronics. As a result, the
manufacturing precision of FDM dual-material printing needs
to be investigated to identify the finest line width of the
conductors. Test samples as shown in Fig. 5 were prepared.
Three parallel ABS tracks were printed within a PETG
substrate. Three line widths: 0.4 mm, 0.6 mm, and 1 mm, were
tested in this paper. Due to the 0.4 mm diameter nozzle used in
FDM printer, the minimal design line width were chosen to be
0.4 mm, and further decrement of line width caused errors in
the slicing of 3D models. The finished test samples with design
line width of 0.4 mm was shown below:
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Fig. 5. Finished test samples with 0.4 mm wide conductors.
According to Table Ι, the fabrication error largely reduced
with the increase of design line width. For 0.4 mm wide
conductors, the measured line width was much larger than the
design value by about 20%, and larger deviations were
observed on these samples. For 0.6 mm- and 1 mm-wide
conductors, the difference between design and actual line width
was less than 0.03 mm. The large fabrication error 0.4 mm
conductor was caused by the 0.4 mm orifice nozzle. ABS
material was loaded into the trenches of the base and
simultaneously smeared by the nozzle lip. This caused the
expansion of ABS material to PETG area.
TABLE I. COMPARISON BETWEEN DESIGNED AND MEASURED LINE
WIDTHS OF PRINTED CONDUCTORS.
Design [mm] 0.4 0.6 1
Measured [mm] 0.51±0.02 0.63±0.01 1.02±0.01
C. Electrical condcutivity characterization
The resistance R of a conductor can be obtained on the
basis of Ohm’s law by driving a constant current I through the
conductor and recording the resulting voltage drop U across it:
U
R (1)
I
According to Pouillet's law, the resistivity of a regular
conductor ρ (Ω cm) can be calculated as:
R A R wd
  (2)
L L
The resistance R was obtained via four-point probe
measurement, and the thickness of the metallic conductor d
was measured by SEM imaging. The line width w and the
length L of the conductor was identified using optical
microscopy.
The temperature and pH value of the alkaline nickel bath
were set to be 50 ℃ and 8.5 that were suggested by the
manufacturer. The plating time was changed from 5 minutes to
2 hours. According to Figure 6, the resistivity shew a dramatic
decline in the first 30 mins, and gradually turned to be stable of
approximate 84 μΩꞏcm. This was partially referred to the
massive phosphorous generated in the initial stage of plating.
Moreover, in the beginning of plating reaction the Ni-P film
was not thick enough to cover the roughness of the ABS base
and form a complete conductive film. This resulted in obstacles
along the conductive path which increased the resistivity. With
sustained deposition of Ni-P alloy, the resistivity reduced and
finally turned to be constant. As a result, the resistance dropped
remarkably in the 30 mins and then declined linearly with the
thickening of nickel film.
Fig. 6. The resistance and resistivity of Ni-P conductors as a function of with
ELP time.
IV. DEMONSTRATOR
A 3D mechatronic structure was fabricated to prove the
feasibility of proposed hybrid additive manufacturing
technology. The working principle of 3D circuit is
demonstrated in Fig. 7. It was a LED blinking circuit based on
a SOP 555 timer and SMD electronic components. The LED
blinking frequency was determined as:
1 minimal resistivity of Ni-P film was identified to be
f 
0.693 C ( R1  2 R2 )
where C, R1, and R2 are the capacitance of the only capacitor,
the resistance of the resistor 1 and 2, respectively. In this case,
the values of R1, R2, and C were 100 kΩ, 22 kΩ, and 10 µF,
respectively. Therefore, a theoretical frequency of 1 Hz was
obtained. A 1 kΩ resistor (R3) was used to restrict the current
through the LED.
Fig. 7. Working principle of 3D LED blinking circuit.
The 3D substrate was printed using dual-material FDM
printing. After that, the structure was etched, activated and
electrolessly plated at 50 ℃ and pH 8.5 for 1 hour. Then, all
SMD components were installed to the 3D substrate with silver
adhesive paste. Eventually, with applied 9V power, the LED
blinked in a frequency of approximate 1 Hz (Fig. 8).
Fig. 8. 3D LED blinking circuit.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper proposed a novel hybrid manufacturing
technology combining fused deposition modeling (FDM) and
selective electroless plating. This method enables the rapid
fabrication of customized 3D mechatronic structures for a
broad range of industry applications such as medical apparatus,
automotive, aviation and aerospace.
With current used 0.4 mm nozzle, FDM printer could
produce the finest conductor of about 0.5 mm wide. When the
electroless plating was conducted at 50 °C and pH 8.5, the
(2)
approximate 8.4 × 10−5 Ω ꞏ cm. A 3D LED blinking circuit was
developed as a demonstrator to testify the feasibility of the
proposed hybrid additive manufacturing technology. It
confirmed that the flexibility and potential of this technology
for the rapid development of customized 3D mechatronic
structures in practical industry applications.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 61504024), the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.
2242017K40060), and the Innovative and entrepreneurial talent
plan of Jiangsu province, China (Grant No. 1106000206).
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