A thermoplastic composite is a mixture of a thermoplastic polymer matrix and a functional filler material. the benefit of composite material is you're able to combine material classes, which yield unique properties, not achievable with either material individually. generally, composites tend to be high-performance materials with higher strength and stiffness at a lower density, but they can also solve problems like wear, temperature, creep, and impact resistance.
What Are The Common Materials
For Material Extrusion 3D Printing?
Common fillers include minerals like
talc, hollow glass spheres, and chopped fibers: such as glass, pyramid, and
carbon. fiber fillers are especially effective at increasing the strength and
stiffness of polymers. the difference in stiffness between unfilled PET, glass
fiber PET, and carbon fiber PET. this stiffening effect is achieved by
transferring stress from the polar matrix to the fiber. the fiber reinforcement
has tensile properties several orders of magnitude greater than the polymer
matrix, so the properties of the resulting composite are somewhere in between
the matrix and the fiber.
What Is The Best Way To
Utilize Fiber Fillers For 3d Printing?
The best way to utilize fiber fillers
is to have a continuous thread aligned in the direction of the mechanical load.
while some 3D printing services on
the market can print continuous fiber parts. the cost and time it takes to
print with this method are typically 10 times greater than a discontinuous
fiber equivalent, making it impractical for everything but aerospace and exotic
parts. chopped fiber reinforced thermoplastics, enable manufacturing at scale.
because the material costs are much lower and the production speed is much
higher by using conventional null processing equipment.
What Are The Benefits Of
Using Fiber Fillers For Material Extrusion 3d Printing?
These same benefits are realized for
material extrusion 3d printing. maximum tensile properties are achieved with
high fiber volume fractions, high aspect ratio fibers, above the critical fiber
length, and high modulus fibers and matrices excellent interfacial surface
chemistry for load transfer.
Different kinds of fibers can
impart a variety of properties to polymer composites.
1. glass fiber reinforced plastics
have an excellent price to performance ratio, along with good impact
resistance, which makes them very popular for automotive components.
2. aramid fiber reinforced
thermoplastics are not as common but tend to have outstanding wear and abrasion
resistance, which makes them very useful for gears, bushings, and
bearings.
3. carbon fiber reinforced
thermoplastics have the maximum performance for strength, stiffness, and weight
reduction, which makes them popular for aerospace applications. for 3d
printing, carbon fiber-filled materials are very popular. because they are less
abrasive than glass fibers. the carbon has a negative coefficient of thermal
expansion and higher thermal conductivity than glass, which helps to suppress
warping and shrinkage in printed parts.
One thing to keep in mind when
printing with fiber-reinforced materials is the flow-induced fiber orientation.
as the material is extruded from a nozzle, the fibers tend to align themselves
in the direction of the flow. as a consequence, you will see a large difference
in the strength and stiffness of parts, where the polymer traces are oriented perpendicular
and orthogonal to the print direction. For example, a flex bar that was printed
out of PET carbon fiber with the traces aligned parallel and transverse to the
loading direction. the bar with transverse orientation has a much lower
flexural modulus. this same effect is commonly observed for injection molded
parts, and molders must take into account the machine direction and transverse
direction, and isotropy of fiber-reinforced thermoplastics.
At CNCLATHING, we have a full line
of fiber-reinforced composites to meet your needs. one of our core capabilities
is making multi-layer filament with an advanced coat extrusion process. with
this technology, we've developed a 25% carbon fiber
high-temperature nylon composite filament by encasing it in a tough outer layer
that helps to spool and feed the material into the printer without snapping.
the outer layer also reduces wear on your 3d printer feed section and nozzle.
it gives parts a silky and matte finish. we love this material for its balance
of stiffness and strength. it's perfect as a replacement for CNC aluminum parts, and for making injection molding tool.
