Investigation of the physical and mechanical properties of composite materials obtained using additive technologies

Abstract

The prevalence of polymers in all spheres of human life necessitates the creation of new more effective composite materials based on polymer matrices and reinforcing fillers, which by their characteristics meet the growing needs of society. In modern industry, production speeds are constantly increasing, so additive technologies are becoming a powerful alternative to traditional single and small-scale production.
 Among the existing types of additive technologies, the method of fused deposition modeling (FDM) deserves special attention, which provides an opportunity to organize production in conditions of limited material, time and human resources. As opposite to traditional production technologies, such as injection molding, FDM allows you to create products of more complex geometric shapes, using different combinations of polymer matrices and reinforcing fillers and thus create composite materials with the required physico-mechanical, rheological and other properties. At the same time, the main advantages of FDM also cause a number of serious disadvantages, such as anisotropy of the properties of finished products, printing defects that lead to increased yields of defective products, uneven physical and mechanical properties etc. In particular, the anisotropy of the properties of FDM-printed products results in significantly lower strength of the parts in the transverse direction to the 3D printing direction (strand overlay direction) compared to the longitudinal one, and the discontinuity of the reinforcing fibers in the strands of polymeric material leads to reduced strength.
 The main areas of research to modernize the process of manufacturing products on a 3D printer using the FDM method are: modernization of components and structures of 3D printers to improve the melting process and layering of materials, aimed at improving print quality and speed, as well as reducing defective yield products; improving the properties of raw materials and creating composite materials to improve the quality of finished products and their characteristics, such as electrical, chemical, mechanical, thermal, environmental, etc .; development of new biopolymers, technologies of their production and use for 3D-printing, which in the future are planned to be used in the creation of bionic parts of human bodies, etc.
 To overcome the main shortcomings of FDM technology, it is proposed to modernize the method of 3D printing and the extruder unit of the 3D printer, which allows to create composite materials directly (directly in the extruder), using different combinations of polymer matrices and solid reinforcing fibers.