materials for additive manufacturing
Research problem statement
The main problem is to achieve mechanical strength to the polymers like Polylactic acid (PLA) by reinforcing with carbon fibres.
FDM printed polymer composites will be studied to demonstrate their strengths and weakness.
Methodology and Experimental design
The key elements of FDM include material feed mechanism, print head, liquefier, printing bed and gantry.
There are several operating parameters that are important in FDM including bead width, model build temperature, air gap, printing orientation and layer thickness.
In FDM, the filament is melted into semi liquid state at nozzle and is extruded layer by layer on the printing bed until complete component is fabricated.
FDM printed polymer composites will be tested and analysed.
Results and discussion
Build orientation in cube software
Results and discussions
Effect of tensile stresses with respect to the orientation
Afrose et al., observed that highest ultimate tensile stress of 38.7 Mpa was found in X-orientation range from 60 to 64% of raw PLA material
Results and discussions
| Method | Materials used | Carbon fiber content (wt%) | Maximum Tensile Strength (MPa) | Tensile strength improvement (%) compared to pure polymer | Reference |
| Fused Deposition Modelling | Short carbon fiber/ABS Short glass fiber/ABS | 5% 13% 18% 40% | 42 70.69 58.6 70 | 24 194 140 115 | Zhong et al., tekinalp et al., |
| Direct write | Short carbon fibre/epoxy/silicon carbide whisker | 35% | 66.2 | 127 | Compton et al., |
| FDM based Co-extrusion | Continuous carbon fibre/PLA Continuous carbon fibre/nylon | 6.6 vol% 34.5 vol% | 185.2 464.4 | 335 446 | Van der klift et al., Matsuzaki et al., |
Results and discussions
Results and discussions
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Microstructure of continuos CF reinforced PLA that represents continuos CF in the fracture surface (a,b) overall cross section; (c) interface (Tian et al.,)
conclusion
Continuous CF and PLA were blended successfully in printing head before deposition increasing the fibre matrix adhesion.
Due to this increase in tensile strength and flexural strength is observed.
the highest ultimate tensile stress of 38.7 Mpa was found in X-orientation range from 60 to 64% of raw PLA material.
The microstructure graph indicates that continuous CF in the fractural surface.
Therefore continuous CF reinforced PLA, printed by FDM has great potential to fabricate functional and load bearing component parts.