Abstract
The integration of additive manufacturing (AM) technology with compression molding (CM), has emerged as a high-performance composite manufacturing technology in recent years. In the AM-CM process, quickly deposited AM preform on a mold undergoes a rapid compaction cycle to fabricate structurally robust composite parts due to highly controlled fiber alignment (from AM) and reduced porosity (from CM). Currently, AMCM-based part size is limited by the size of the mold volume, thus posing a challenge to manufacture scalable parts. This work focuses on joining techniques developed to enable fast rate joining of short fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite parts using the AM-CM process. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin reinforced with 20 wt% short carbon fiber composites was printed onto a flat mold and pressed under a hydraulic press. Fabricated panels were joined by the (a) mechanical impression at the joining interface and (b) over-molded continuous carbon fiber (CCF) sheet. Tensile tests were performed to characterize the joining strength of both mechanical impression-based joints and CCF over molded joints. Among the mechanical impression-based joints, a U-shape channel allowed the fibers to flow between two joint parts, and 280 % increased mechanical properties were observed. The continuous carbon fiber-based over molded joint CCF showed 350 % increase in tensile strength compared to the butt joints.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 344-355 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Manufacturing Processes |
| Volume | 136 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 28 2025 |
Funding
This work was partly supported by the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Science , and Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) under the Visiting Faculty Program-Student program. A portion of the research was also sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy , Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy , Advanced Manufacturing Office , under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The authors thank Julian Charron and Ryan Ogle from the Composite Innovation group at ORNL for helping with the robot's tool path planning. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( https://www.energy.gov/doe-public-access-plan ).