Experimental Determination of Mechanical Properties of Additively Manufacturing Continuous Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Parts Produced by a Novel Laser Sintering Process

Additive manufacturing of continuous carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CCFRP) parts ena-bles the economical production of complex parts for aerospace, mechanical engineering and other industries. By using continuous fibres, the mechanical properties of the parts can be sig-nificantly increased in line with the load path. However, current additive manufacturing pro-cesses for producing CCFRP parts do not optimally meet the matrix requirements. Laser-sintering, on the other hand, has proven to be a promising alternative in an industrial environ-ment, allowing the production of robust parts without support structures in a time-efficient and economical manner for single and small-batch production. Based on a novel laser-sintering machine with automated continuous fibre integration, the advantages of the laser-sintering process are combined with the advantages of continuous fibres. This paper describes the experimental procedure for increasing the fibre volume content (FVC) of CCFRP parts. Considering the process limits, the FVC could be increased up to 25%. Compared to polyam-ide 12 samples without continuous fibre reinforcement, Young's modulus could be increased by a factor of 30 and tensile strength by a factor of 8.