The facile manufacture of PA12 MWCNT/silica (50/50 by weight) nanocomposite powders through a high energy mixing process is presented, which are useful to generate 3D objects by a novel Laser Polymer Deposition (LPD) process. The mixing as well as the LPD process led to no discernible changes in the material properties (DSC, SEM, LD) of the core‐shell nanocomposites, enabling the recycling of unconverted powder. The built parts yield ultimate tensile stresses and Young's modulus at 10%–20% of the bulk material. Partially unmolten particles and voids were identified as the main mechanical failure mechanism in the built parts. The mechanical properties are better with low additive content (Young's modulus: 89.8 ± 5.4 MPa; UTS: 12.9 ± 5.3 MPa with 0.25 wt% additives). Electronic conductivity up to the region of moderate conductivity could be achieved by multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) network formation (8 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 1.25 wt% of additives). A variant of the processing strategy revealed that a higher mechanical strength can be achieved by a laser induced remelting of the traces following their initial construction.

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Additive manufacturing with polymers is typically performed using techniques such as stereolithography, selective laser sintering (SLS), or fused deposition modeling. SLS of unmodified powders with CO2 lasers represents the state of the art in powder-based polymer additive manufacturing. In the presented work, thermoplastic polyurethane was successfully processed for the first time with a powder feed technique, which is similar to the well-known laser metal deposition. The powder material was doped with carbon black in order to increase the absorptivity of the powder material for laser radiation in the near-infrared range. Various geometries were produced using a standard laser cladding setup with a modified powder feeding system and an Nd:YAG laser. The powder material and the generated structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Structural properties, e.g., porosity, were controlled by different fabrication strategies and process parameters. Furthermore, hybrid structures consisting of metal and polymer parts were successfully produced in the same experimental setup by using two different powder feeders.

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