Additive manufacture of advanced composites using reactive resins and continuous carbon fiber

Abstract

To overcome the significant limitations such as slow processing times, substantial energy needs of conventional additive manufacturing technology, reactive extrusion additive manufacturing (REAM) process was developed. As printed objects with neat reactive resin exhibited insufficient mechanical performance for advanced application, continuous fiber reinforcement is an effective route to improve mechanical performances. Continuous carbon fiber reinforced 3D printing was performed using a commercially available reactive resin system and an experimentally synthesized one at NDSU. The mechanical properties of the printed carbon fiber reinforced samples were compared with the neat resin samples. The tensile strength of printed sample using Pentaerythritol-xylendiamine resin system increased by 217% with 2.88% carbon fiber content. Similarly tensile strength of Epon-Epikure sample increased by 151% with the fiber-volume fraction of 4.4%. Therefore, reinforcement with continuous carbon fiber has potential to overcome the barrier of low mechanical strength exhibited by neat reactive resin system.