3D printing of Custom Fabricated Textured Flexible Fiber Composites
Anwer Ali Owais (1), Ye Hui (1), Naguib Hani E. (1)*
(1) University of Toronto - Ontario - Canada
This study conducts a parametric study of using custom fabricated flexible 3D printer composite filament that can be used as “ink” to be fed into a Fused Deposition modeling printer to investigate the fiber alignment during the printing process. Different volume fractions of flexible thermoplastic polyurethane carbon fiber-composites have been fabricated and the effect of fiber alignment during the printing process was elucidated by conducting tensile testing. The surface was then textured using fiber-deboning and pullout process to expose the fibrous phase, and the surface morphology was characterized for roughness. Finally, the Surface morphology was imaged under a Scanning Electron Microscope to see the exposed fibers and their interaction with the matrix to determine the fiber-matrix adhesion.