I am looking at an additive manufacturing route as an alternative to an existing technology which currently uses machined aluminium for its tooling. The process is thermally cyclic between 65C and room temperature and requires a good level of dimensional accuracy. While the mechanical properties are important to material selection, the focus of this thread is regarding the thermal properties.
When researching possible printing materials, I was surprised to see the thermal conductivity of commercially available printing materials are quite low, between 0.4 - 0.8 W/m-K and the alleged high thermally conductive materials top out at around 4 - 8 W/m-K, in-plane and 1 - 4 W/m-K, through plane (Example: ). Could someone explain why the thermal conductivity isn't higher and what it would take to increase it?
When researching possible printing materials, I was surprised to see the thermal conductivity of commercially available printing materials are quite low, between 0.4 - 0.8 W/m-K and the alleged high thermally conductive materials top out at around 4 - 8 W/m-K, in-plane and 1 - 4 W/m-K, through plane (Example: ). Could someone explain why the thermal conductivity isn't higher and what it would take to increase it?