Development of a 3D printer for long fiber-reinforced plastic and evaluation of the mechanical properties of printed parts

Abstract

The field of three-dimensional (3D) printing, a technology that allows low-cost printing of complex 3D shapes with a high degree of modeling freedom, has exhibited significant growth over the last few years. This paper proposes a new 3D printing mechanism for long fiber-reinforced plastic as part of an effort to realize 3D-printed shapes with favorable mechanical properties and describes how prototype parts were printed using the new method. We also devise a method for modifying the fiber surface and other techniques for improving adhesion of fibers and UV resin. Mechanical testing of prototype parts printed using the proposed method indicates that the parts exhibit excellent mechanical properties as a result of filling with long fibers, indicating that the method yields a material with few voids and a high fiber volume fraction.

Keywords:

• 3D printer
• composite materials
• mechanical properties
• long fiber
• fabrication method
• high fiber volume fraction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

We wish to thank Chao LUO, a graduate student at Shinshu University, for his contribution to this study. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research 21K19861 and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20H00288 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.