Optimization and characterization of printing parameters on a novel continuous carbon fiber composite material for 3D-printing

Additive manufacturing of composites materials is rapidly gaining interest in the aerospace industry due to the technique’s flexibility and the high strength to weight ratio of polymer composites. Toray has recently developed a novel continuous carbon fiber (CCF) composite filament with Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS) resin matrix (CCF/PPS). With a high volume fraction of fibers, 50 Vf%, this new filament could introduce significant improvements in mechanical properties upon existing alternatives such as chopped fiber and continuous fiber composites with lower fiber volume fraction. In this investigation, we tested this novel material using fused deposition modeling and quantitatively evaluated the contributions of the printing parameters to the print quality using a Design of Experiments (DOE) approach. The printing parameters included the print height, nozzle temperature, printing speed, and flow rate. We found correlations between the printing parameters to the surface roughness, dimensional accuracy, crystallinity, and microstructure of the printed materials. The resulting printing conditions can be adopted in further scientific investigations as well as serve in the fabrication of high-quality components of this CCF/PPS composite material