Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Recent innovations in thermoplastic extrusion 3D printing have promoted the development of functional materials, such as conductive composites, which lead the way to the creation of sensors embedded directly into printed structures. To this aim, this paper presents a feasibility study on the use of a commercial conductive PLA filament for the realization of a 3D-printed temperature sensor integrated into a thermoplastic structure. To this end, a series of experiments were conducted on 3D-printed samples to analyse the correlation between electrical resistance and temperatures. The results obtained show a clear and reproducible relationship between the two quantities, from which a useful function was derived to estimate the temperature from the resistance measurement. This study confirms the potential of conductive PLA as a low-cost and customisable solution for thermal monitoring and represents a step forward towards the integration of functional sensors through additive manufacturing.
Source: Sensors
DOI: 10.3390/s25206348
Authors: Agnese Staffa, Gašper Krivic, Mariachiara Tocci, Massimiliano Palmieri, Filippo Cianetti, Janko Slavič
Institutions: University of Perugia, University of Ljubljana
Language: English
Subfield: Automotive Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,137
Funder: European Commission
OpenAlex ID: W4415209327