Performance Study of 3D Printed Continuous Fiber Reinforced Composites

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (3D Printing) has made tremendous progress in the past two decades and the success of continuous fiber fabrication (CFR) technology has made it conceivable to print continuous carbon fiber reinforced composites. In this paper, the tensile strength, Young’s modulus, flexure strength, and flexural modulus of 3D printed continuous carbon fiber reinforced composites were investigated using test specimens based on the standards ASTM D3039/D3039M and ASTM D790, respectively. A proportional increase in tensile strength, Young’s modulus, flexural strength, and flexural modulus were measured with increasing carbon fiber volume fractions for a given fiber orientation. The test results indicate that except for the flexure strength of the highest (0.767) volume fraction fiber composites, the other measured values are much lower and are about half the values listed in the given datasheet.