Preparation of pre-impregnated continuous carbon fiber reinforced nylon6 filaments and the mechanical properties of 3D printed composites

Abstract

The addition of continuous fibers as the reinforcement is considered to be an effective option to promote the mechanical properties of 3D printed parts. In this paper, different types of prepreg continuous fiber filaments for 3D printing were prepared, and the effects of fiber types and content on the tensile strength of filaments were investigated. Moreover, the prepared filaments were also applied to 3D printing continuous fiber reinforced composite parts. The effects of the infiltration degree on the properties and its strengthening mechanism were studies by failure morphologies. The results showed that the strength of filament was influenced by both internal infiltration degree and resin content, at the same fiber content, the tensile modulus of the filament increases with resin content, and the maximum tensile force can reach 0.21 MPa (3k-0.68). The tensile strength of the sample is negatively correlated with the fiber content in the filament, while the shear strength is positively correlated with the fiber content. At the printing temperature of 280 °C, the printed samples show better tensile and shear properties of 189 MPa and 29 MPa, respectively.