I have a PLA chainmail that I'm trying to coat "evenly" with conductive fine activated carbon powder. Any thoughts of how I can do this? I'm trying to avoid hand painting. The chainmail will be in contact with naked skin so I'm trying to avoid toxic chemicals that may cause a skin reaction.
You mention conductive and fine as part of your descriptors. The fine particulate should create some concern regarding inhalation. Laser printers, copiers and powdercoating involve extremely fine particles, and operators should be using appropriately capable breathing protective devices. I'm personally aware of copier and laser printer technicians using vacuum cleaners with filters specifically engineered for these dangers. I'm personally aware of a powdercoat operator who does not use protective gear and is suffering from breathing distress after too many years of this practice.
This danger suggests that the powder being applied to your 3D printed item should be encapsulated as part of the adhesion process. In so doing, the conductive aspect is likely to be negated, as there will be reduced contact between particles, perhaps zero contact, zero conductivity.
Powdercoating uses electrostatic charges on the very fine powder and on the destination item, which may be possible even for the plastic mesh shown, but the subsequent steps involve baking the powder to melt as a contiguous mass on the surface of the object. This is certainly impractical in the case of a 3D printed item.
One could spray adhesive on the mesh, then dust the powder over the surface, but this falls into the encapsulation and isolation aspect.
If you require conductivity, one might use conductive PLA but it's important to note that there is a substantial resistive value to products of this nature. The specifications of the different conductive PLA products indicate that the geometry and printing settings will have an effect on the resistance, making an accurate assessment challenging.
