An investigation into 3D printing of fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites (original) (raw)
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The main purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of Additive Manufacturing of Fiber Reinforced Plastics technology. Recent advances in additive manufacturing, with the introduction of fused deposition modeling of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics, have opened a door for further improvements in composite manufacturing. We explore in detail the different available methods of manufacturing structures with continuous fiber reinforced plastics using additive manufacturing. It was found that it's possible to print different types of fibers; Glass, Carbon, Kevlar and Yute (Bio Filaments), and there are two types of resins that are mainly used; thermosets and thermoplastics. Finally, we conclude by analyzing current challenges of this technology in the area of design and structural optimization.
Machines
Additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) has rapidly developed in recent years. In the recent past, many researchers have highlighted the development of in-house filaments for fused filament fabrication (FFF), which can extend the corresponding field of application. Due to the limited mechanical properties and deficient functionality of printed polymer parts, there is a need to develop printable polymer composites that exhibit high performance. This study analyses the actual mechanical characteristics of parts fabricated with a low-cost printer from a carbon fibre-reinforced nylon filament. The results show that the obtained values differ considerably from the values presented in the datasheets of various filament suppliers. Moreover, the hardness and tensile strength are influenced by the building direction, the infill percentage, and the thermal stresses, whereas the resilience is affected only by the building direction. Furthermore, the relationship between the mechanical prope...
Inventions, 2023
Fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D-printed parts are mostly used as prototypes instead of functional parts because they have a weaker mechanical strength compared to their injection molded counterparts. Various methods including a fiber-reinforced polymer composite were proposed to enhance the properties of FFF 3D-printed parts. A new concept to fabricate a polymer composite via FFF 3D printing is proposed, where fiber is deposited during printing, instead of using a premixed composite filament. In order to investigate the workability of this concept, a new device is needed. Firstly, the design requirements were identified, and a fiber doser that can be mounted on a commercial 3D printer was designed. Prototype testing was conducted to improve the design. The improved fiber doser was able to deposit varied fiber contents during FFF 3D printing. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to quantify the fiber contents of the fabricated composites. With this newly designed doser, short glass fiber–polylactic acid (PLA) composites with three different fiber contents (1.02 wt.%, 2.39 wt.%, and 4.98 wt.%) were successfully manufactured. A new technique to manufacture a polymer composite is proven; nevertheless, the mechanical and tribological properties of the newly fabricated composites are under investigation and will be reported in a subsequent article.
FEM analysis of long-fibre composite structures created by 3D printing
Transportation research procedia, 2019
Fiber reinforced composites have significant usage in aircraft and automotive industries due to their advantages like high strength to weight and stiffness to weight ratios. Short manufacturing cycle time and low production cost are reasons of continued development of additive manufacturing. 3D printing allows to produce reinforced composites but there is necessity to improve printing parameters and propose appropriate fiber deposition with aim to gain suitable mechanical properties. Article is focused on assessment of different options of creating long fibre composite models for 3D printing. These models are reinforced using long aramid, carbon and glass fibres. The goal of paper is analyzing of geometry constraints of fiber adding into structure. In addition, the alternative ways of modelling in FEM software ADINA will be presented.
Materials, 2020
In this work, aligned discontinuous fibre composite (ADFRC) tapes were developed and investigated as precursors for a novel 3D printing filament. ADFRCs have the potential to achieve mechanical performance comparable to continuous fibre reinforced composites, given sufficient fibre length and high level of alignment, and avoid many of the manufacturing difficulties associated with continuous fibres, e.g., wrinkling, bridging and corner radii constraints. Their potential use for fused filament fabrication (FFF) techniques was investigated here. An extensive down-selection process of thermoplastic matrices was performed, as matrix properties significantly impact both the processing and performance of the filament. This resulted in four candidate polymers (ABS, PLA, Nylon, PETG) which were used to manufacture ADFRC tapes with a Vf of 12.5% using the high performance discontinuous fibre (HiPerDiF) technology and an in-house developed continuous consolidation module. Tensile stiffness an...
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF 3D PRINTED FIBER REINFORCED THERMOPLASTIC
ASME 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, 2019
3D printed composites is a relatively new and untested market in the composites industry. 3D printing in general is becoming a widely used manufacturing method because of its ease, versatile capabilities, and consistency. Recent improvement in 3D printing enables 3D printing of composites fibers in any given direction. In this study, continuous carbon fiber onyx samples were manufactured using Markforged X7 3D printers. Samples with three different fiber orientations were manufactured to determine all elastic properties. The results show that while the properties are lower than high strength CFRPs, there is high potential for the use of 3D printed composites upon improving the matrix properties as well as the bonding between fiber and matrix.
Mechanical Performance of Long-fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites by 3D Printing
2020
Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D Printing, has been around for more than 2 decades and has recently gained importance for use in direct manufacturing. The quantified physical properties of materials are required by design engineers to inform and validate their designs, and this is no less true for AM that it is for traditional manufacturing methods. Recent innovation in AM has seen the emergence of long-fibre composite AM technologies, such as the Mark Two (Markforged Inc, USA) system, enabling the manufacture of thermoplastic polymer composites with long-fibre reinforcement. To date though, the mechanical response of the materials with respect to build parameter variation is little understood. In this project, selected mechanical properties (ultimate tensile strength – UTS and flexural modulus) of samples processed using the Mark Two printer were studied. The effect of the reinforcement type (Carbon, Kevlar®, and HSHT glass), amount of reinforcement, reinforcement lay-...
The advancements in manufacturing technology over recent years have made Additive Manufacturing, a breakthrough technology in the designing and manufacturing field. This paper discusses the possible applications of Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques for the production of Carbon Fibre (CF) components without the aid of mould or plug used by traditional methods. This paper investigates the available AM designing techniques to experimentally prove the validity of the research to develop a design concept that can be embedded into an AM machine as a 3D Printer. Polylactic acid (PLA) tensile test specimens are produced with CF reinforcement using both traditional moulding and AM techniques. The preliminary mechanical testing of moulded specimens with fibres revealed a tensile strength increase of up to 73% when compared to specimens without fibres and the testing of PLA filaments produced by AM with fibres showed a performance increase of 66% when compared to filaments without fibres.
3D Printed Composites – Benchmarking the State-Of-The-Art
2017
Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a 3D printing technique which allows layer-bylayer build-up of a part by the deposition of thermoplastic material through a nozzle. The technique allows for complex shapes to be made with a degree of design freedom unachievable with traditional manufacturing methods. However, the mechanical properties of the thermoplastic materials used are low compared to common engineering materials. In this work, improved 3D printing feedstocks for FFF, with carbon fibres embedded in a thermoplastic matrix to reinforce the material, are investigated. The stateof-the-art in composite 3D printing is reviewed and the capabilities of two different commercially available composite printing methods are assessed by print trials, optical microscopy and mechanical characterization of the printed materials. It is found that printing of continuous carbon fibres using the MarkOne gives significant increases in performance over unreinforced thermoplastics, with mechanical p...
Materials
This paper introduces novel research into specific mechanical properties of composites produced by 3D printing using Continuous-Fiber Fabrication (CFF). Nylon (Onyx) was used as the composite base material, while carbon constituted the reinforcement element. The carbon fiber embedment was varied in selected components taking values of 0°, 45°, 90°, and 135° for parts undergoing tensile testing, while one specific part type was produced combining all angles. Carbon-fiber-free components with 100% and 37% fillings were also produced for comparison purposes. Parts undergoing the Charpy impact test had the fibers deposited at angles of 0° and 90°, while one part type was also produced combining the four angles mentioned before. Carbon-fiber-free parts with 100% and 37% fillings were also produced for comparison purposes as with the first part. The Markforged MARK TWO 3D printer was used for printing the parts. These were subsequently scanned in the METROTOM 1500 computed tomography and ...