Effects of auxiliary heat on warpage and mechanical properties in carbon fiber/ABS composite manufactured by fused deposition modeling

Abstract

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology offers opportunities for high-efficiency design and low-cost manufacturing of 3D complex parts in additive manufacturing (AM). The warpage remains a big problem which prevents the industrial application of FDM parts, especially parts fabricated by fiber-reinforced composite. In this study, an auxiliary heating plate was developed and mounted on the printing head of an FDM 3D printer to suppress the warpage of the parts made with short carbon fiber (CF)-reinforced acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymers (ABS) composites. It is found that auxiliary heating and raster angle of FDM process are the two dominating parameters on the tensile properties and the warpage of FDM parts. For the best parameter combination, 160 oC for auxiliary heating temperature and 0 degree for raster angle, the warpage was completely suppressed and the tensile strength got 31% enhancement, ductility got 439% enhancement compared to the FDM part without auxiliary heating and 0 degree in raster angle. Cyclic fatigue behavior and anisotropy of CF/ABS specimen was also significantly improved by auxiliary heating treatment. The reduced stain caused by the annealing ability of auxiliary heating during the 3D printing, is responsible for this enhancement. Compared with auxiliary heating and post thermal annealing treatment, the tensile property and cyclic fatigue behavior of CF/ABS specimen was equivalent. Notably, auxiliary heating is the “in-situ” annealing during the process of 3D printing, which can break through the existing dimension constraints of post thermal annealing treatment. Therefore, the approach broadens the design for CF/ABS composites through temperature-specific optimization and makes it possible to fabricate huge-size FDM parts.