Enhanced mechanical performance of fused filament fabrication copolyester by continuous carbon fiber in‐situ reinforcement
Huiying Zhang, Ziyan Zhou, Xin Gao, Tianxiang Fan, Ye Chen, Huaping Wang
Abstract
Abstract As one of the most commonly used thermoplastics, polyester has rarely been used as the raw materials of 3D printing. However, copolyester obtained by copolymerization modifying polyester, such as Poly Ethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG), has been proven to be suitable for the fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique in previous studies, but the mechanical performance of printed products is still poor. In this paper, 3D printed PETG is in‐situ reinforced by continuous carbon fiber (CCF), and the relationship between the process parameters and the mechanical performance of CCF/PETG is systematically investigated. The results show that the performance of 3D printed PETG is significantly enhanced by CCF in‐situ reinforcement due to the effectively impregnation of CCF. By optimizing process parameters, the tensile strength, flexural strength and flexural modulus of CCF/PETG are 597%, 293% and 650% of pure PETG, respectively, with a relatively low fiber mass fraction of 19.2 wt%. This paper demonstrates that CCF in‐situ reinforced 3D printed copolyester may be used in the manufacture of complex structural parts that require high mechanical performance in the engineering application.