3D Printing of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics and their Applications

Abstract

3D printing of carbon fiber reinforced plastics can produce lightweight components with higher efficiency and more complex structure. For the short carbon fiber reinforced plastics, the composites are firstly made by compounding, then they are processed to filaments, powders or other needed forms, finally the components are printed by Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Selected Laser Sintering (SLS) or other methods. The tensile strength of the nylon-based component is more than 70 MPa. Companies such as EOS, Stratasys and Farsoon can provide the materials and equipments. For the continuous carbon fiber reinforced plastics, the divided carbon fibers and plastic filaments or impregnated carbon fiber filaments are firstly prepared, then the components are printed by FDM or other methods. The average tensile strength of the nylon-based component is more than 200 MPa. Companies such as Markforged and Arevo Labs have commercialized the 3D printing equipment/platform for the continuous fiber reinforced plastics.