Process Evaluation, Tensile Properties and Fatigue Resistance of Chopped and Continuous Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites by 3D Printing

Abstract

The aim of this article was to comprehensively evaluate the manufacturing process, tensile properties and fatigue resistance of the chopped and continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs) by 3D printing. The main results included: the common defects of the printed CFRTPCs contained redundant and accumulation defects, scratch and warping defects; the continuous fiber contributed to the dimensional stability and accuracy of width and thickness; associations between mass percentage of fiber reinforcement and the averages of elastic modulus, strain at break and ultimate tensile strength were approximately linear based on tensile test results; the fatigue resistance improved with the increasing fiber reinforcement based on fatigue test results. As for specimens with four fiber rings, there was a good linear relationship between the stress level and logarithm value of cycles during the whole life while those of pure matrix and specimens with one and two fiber rings were piecewise linear, taking about 10,000 cycles as boundary. The micro morphology showed that the fatigue failure behaved as matrix fracture, large and small fiber bundles and single fibers extracted from matrix. Under the tension-tension fatigue load, the deformations where easily concentrating stress behaved as sunken surfaces along thickness and width directions, and the deformation along width direction was greater than that along thickness direction.

Effect of process parameters on properties of 3D printed continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites

“…Camposeco presented an experimental study centered on optimizing five responses associated with FDM: energy consumption of the 3D printer, processing time, part's dimensional accuracy, the quantity of material used to print the pieces and mechanical strength of the specimens (Camposeco, 2020). Besides, our research group have evaluated the printing process and the effect of fiber arrangements on mechanical properties of the printed CFRTPCs by the printer Mark Two (Chen et al, 2021a(Chen et al, , 2021b(Chen et al, , 2021cChen et al, 2021aChen et al, , 2021bChen et al, , 2021cChen et al, 2022).…”

Two-Step Preparation of CCF/PEEK Wrapped Yarn for 3D Printing Composites with Enhanced Mechanical Properties

“…However, these traditional manufacturing processes have the defects of complicated processing, long production cycles, and high cost. In contrast, 3D printing is an advanced additive manufacturing technology that enables the rapid manufacture of complex structural parts, making it possible to achieve the integrated manufacturing of high-performance composite materials [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. According to the pretreatment method of continuous fibers, there are two basic strategies for the 3D printing of CFTPCs: in situ impregnation and pre-impregnation methods.…”