Three-dimensionally printed temperature sensors based on conductive PLA materials

Staffa, Agnese (author), Krivic, Gašper (author), Tocci, Mariachiara (author), Palmieri, Massimiliano (author), Cianetti, Filippo (author), Slavič, Janko (author)

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.

• Language: English
• Keywords: conductive PLA, 3D-printed sensors, temperature effect, thermal characterization
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 20 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 25, issue 20
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175207
• UDC: 621
• ISSN on article: 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s25206348
• COBISS.SI-ID: 254058243
• Publication date in RUL: 21.10.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Sensors
• Shortened title: Sensors
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1424-8220
• COBISS.SI-ID: 10176278

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: električno prevodni PLA, 3D-natisnjeni senzorji, temperaturni učinek, termična karakterizacija

Projects

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Project number: CS00000041
• Name: VITALITY - Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) National Innovation Ecosystem grant