Investigation of the Tensile Properties in Fiber-Reinforced Additive Manufacturing and Fused Filament Fabrication

Abstract

This research project examines how fibre orientation affects the strength of a part produced by fibre-reinforced additive manufacturing (FRAM) process. Tensile specimens with varying fibre orientations were made using a 3D printer capable of printing with carbon fibre (CF), Kevlar (KV), and fibre glass (FG). Various tensile tests have been performed for different fibre orientation and materials. The strongest fibre orientations, in descending order, were two rings concentric with isotropic fill and five ring concentric fill. While fibre orientation and infill percentage could be specified for each layer, the fibre starting location was automatically determined which sometimes resulted in decreasing strength of the part by introducing stress concentration. Currently, industrial trends in the utilisation of fused filament fabrication (FFF) printers are mostly on PLA and ABS-based polymer materials. And, there is no comprehensive study available investigating the relations between these traditional FFF processes and continuous FRAM processes. The aim of this study is to provide an in-depth tensile property analysis showing the advantageous of FRAM compared to conventional FFF technologies.