Geometric characteristics of single bead fabricated by continuous fiber reinforced polymer composite additive manufacturing

Abstract

Continuous fiber-reinforced polymer composite additive manufacturing (CFRP-AM) provides an efficient and effective solution to fabricate composites with intricate designs and high performance that are unattainable with conventional composite manufacturing technologies. The geometric characteristic of a single bead is essential information for process improvement and planning of CFRP-AM but has not been reported yet. This study investigates the geometric attributes of single bead fabricated by continuous fiber-reinforced polymer composite additive manufacturing to provide researchers insights into the relationship between geometry design and performance of fabricated parts. The width of beads fabricated by various process settings is characterized and modeled with response surface models. Moreover, the influence of the geometry design, e.g., curvatures and turning angles, are qualitatively studied and analyzed. Corresponding benchmark toolpaths are proposed for characterization studies. Lastly, the performance of two CFRP-AM platform configurations, i.e., three degree-of-freedom gantry and six-degree-of-freedom articulated types, are compared in terms of the geometric accuracy of typical features.