5th International Webinar on Materials Science & Engineering, South Carolina, United States Of America, 4 - 05 April 2022
Background: Additive manufacturing of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites has attracted great literature attention, especially since 2016. This interest was escalated when Markforged (Massachusetts, USA) introduced their commercially available printer on the subject. Currently, there are studies in the literature to extend the used materials and their applications.
Objective: To examine the mechanical properties of additively manufactured hybrid layered continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTP) using nylon as a matrix and carbon fiber as support material.
Methods: CFRTP composites were manufactured using continuous carbon fiber filament by fused deposition modeling via a custom printer. Pure nylon, chopped carbon fiber reinforced, and continuous fiber-reinforced filaments were used to print the samples. In hybrid layered continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (HLRTP), both continuous and chopped fibers were used as support material.
Results: From the mechanical tests, it has been seen that continuous fiber reinforcement significantly increased the mechanical properties where HLRTP showed the highest values. Ultimate tensile strength of 114 MPa and flexural strength of 108 MPa were achieved in HLRTP using a volume fraction of %8.43 continuous fiber and %17.14 chopped fiber.
Conclusion: In this study, hybrid layered carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites were additively manufactured with an FDM-based printer. Their mechanical properties were investigated with tensile and flexural tests. The tests showed that HLRTP specimens had superior strength and elastic modulus values, especially flexural tests.