AN INVESTIGATION ON STRUCTURE STIFFNESS OF 3D PRINTED FRAMES USING CONTINUOUS CARBON FIBERS

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of continuous carbon fibers (CCF) on the stiffness of 3D printed frames is investigated. Fused deposition modelling (FDM) technology is employed to build three typical frames with 15% of CCF and 85% poliamide 12 which is combined 10% short carbon fibers (PA12-CF) for compress testing. The 3D models of the frames including grid (-45⁰/+45⁰), triangle (-60⁰/+60⁰) and grid (0/90⁰) made by CCF lattices are designed based on slicing parameters and simulated in Abaqus before conducting experiment. An MTS–45 system (USA) is used for compression testing to obtain the stiffnesses and peak loads of the models. The effect of different CCF lattices on the stiffness of the printed models is pointed out. Finally, the comparison between simulation and experiment results are also discussed. It shows that two results are quite close together. This investigation is worth in the extension of CCF printing application.