Research of Impregnated Carbon Fiber Tow Quality for 3D Composites Printing

Abstract

Time nowadays becoming more and more important resource in the life. Additive manufacturing technologies allow to produce very complex shapes of products reducing product development time. Moreover, additive manufacturing of composite parts allows to produce structural parts with perfect mechanical properties. Though production of composites is still very complicated because reinforcement material needs to be prepared for the process. Moreover, preparation process can significantly influence on quality of produced part. This article focusing on preparation procedure of continuous carbon fiber (CCF) tow for 3D printing of composite structures. Visual analysis of impregnated CCF showed that internal air voids area in the analyzed cross‐sections fluctuates from 11.1% to 22.8%. Meanwhile, after pull‐out test, significant effect of impregnation on adhesion is observed. Not impregnated CCF is pulled‐out from matrix material with the tensile force 38 N, however impregnated CCF is not even pulled‐out with the force 138 N.