Additive manufacturing of short carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide composites by fused filament fabrication: Formulation, manufacturing and characterization

Abstract

Short carbon fiber-reinforced Polyamide 12 composite materials were prepared and used as filaments for additive manufacturing (AM) of structures using the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) method. The effect of carbon fibers concentration and type, infill pattern and environmental temperatures on mechanical properties of the printed test samples were investigated. The measured tensile modulus of the printed composite ranged from 1.4 to 8.8 GPa, an increase of up to 6.3 times the value of the neat printed polymer. The tensile strength ranged from 40 to 90 MPa, for an increase of up to 2.15 times. Optimization of the environmental temperature for improved coalescence of filaments led to a fair increase in values of the tensile modulus and strength, with an improvement up to 1.5 and 2 times, respectively, for the printed samples with pattern orthogonal to the loading directions. Microstructure characterizations were performed for mechanical results interpretations, with the help of a specialized homogenization model. The combination of FFF and carbon fiber-reinforced composite shows high promises for applications in the transportation industry.

Keywords

• FFF
• Composites
• Carbon fiber
• Homogenization
• Micro-structural analysis
• Mechanical characterization