Institute of Material Science, Joining and Forming – BMK Endowed Professorship for Aviation
Hannes Oberlercher
Additive manufacturing is becoming increasingly important in field of component design. In order to enhance the mechanical properties of 3D printed components, load-oriented Continuous fiber Composite Materials (CFC) are used. A poor parameter selection for the manufacturing process of 3D-Printed CFC components leads to an inhomogeneous distribution of the fibers and increased occurrence of cavities in the matrix material [1]. These imperfections can be described by deconsolidation occurring in the laminate and indicate an insufficient consolidation, temperature management over time in the process. This research presents the problem analysis and shows possibilities for an improvement of the 3D-Printed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polyamide-6 (CF-PA6) material by: First, printing specimens of the used material with different parameter settings and second, conducting material tests in combination with microstructural analysis. By preparing microsections of the specimens, a closer look inside the structure of the material is obtained which defines the basis for further development in terms of its homogeneity. For the printing process, the Continuous Filament Fabrication (CFF) system from MarkForged (MF) with a self-developed controller board and an open source software is used.
[1] Henninger, F. 1998. Deconsolidation behaviour of glass fibrepolyamide 12 composite sheet material during post-processing. Plastics rubber and composites processing and applications. 1998, 27.6.
