Strengthening of additive manufactured parts by using different type of fibre reinforcements

The main objective of this work was to investigate the mechanical properties of additive manufactured (AM) polymeric parts (polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)) reinforced by different types of fibres. Natural (jute and curaua) and synthetic (glass) fibre fabrics were laminated on the outer sides of the AM parts by using an epoxy resin. The reinforcement was applied to the AM parts as 1 and 2 layers for each fibre type. The mechanical characterization of the AM-reinforced composites was performed through tensile and flexural tests. It was found that the addition of the reinforcement fibres improved the mechanical properties of the AM parts for both materials tested. In general, the glass fibre-reinforced specimens presented better mechanical properties when compared to the natural fibre-reinforced AM parts. The curaua fibrereinforced specimens presented improved performance when compared to the jute composites and matched the mechanical properties of the 1-layer glass fibre-reinforced AM specimens. The failure modes significantly varied as a function of the material. The PLA specimens showed a brittle failure, while the ABS specimens presented delamination in the resin/printed part interface. Adding different fibre fabrics to 3D-printed materials may be a promising innovation in order to improve their mechanical properties and these improvements might enable these materials to serve for high load bearing purposes.

Automated summary

This study investigated the mechanical properties of additive manufactured polymeric parts reinforced with different types of fibers, showing that glass fiber had better effects compared to natural fibers, enhancing the load-bearing capacity of the materials.