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Additive manufacturing with fibre-reinforcement – design guidelines and investigation into the influence of infill patterns

Janos Plocher (Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK)
Jean-Baptiste Wioland (Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK)
Ajit Singh Panesar (Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London, UK)

Rapid Prototyping Journal

ISSN: 1355-2546

Article publication date: 4 February 2022

Issue publication date: 29 June 2022

543

Abstract

Purpose

Fibre-reinforced additive manufacturing (FRAM) with short and continuous fibres yields light and stiff parts and thus increasing industry acceptance. High material anisotropy and specific manufacturing constraints shift the focus towards design for AM (DfAM), particularly on toolpath strategies. Assessing the design-property-processing relations of infill patterns is fundamental to establishing design guidelines for FRAM.

Design/methodology/approach

Subject to the DfAM factors performance, economy and manufacturability, the efficacy of two conventional infill patterns (grid and concentric) was compared with two custom strategies derived from the medial axis transformation (MAT) and guided by the principal stresses (MPS). The recorded stiffness and strength, the required CPU and print time, and the degree of path undulation and effective fibre utilisation (minimum printable fibre length) associated with each pattern, served as assessment indices for different case studies. Moreover, the influence of material anisotropy was examined, and a stiffness-alignment index was introduced to predict a pattern’s performance.

Findings

The highest stiffnesses and strengths were recorded for the MPS infill, emphasising the need for tailoring print paths rather than using fixed patterns. In contrast to the grid infill, the concentric infill offered short print times and reasonable utilisation of continuous fibres. The MAT-based infill yielded an excellent compromise between the three DfAM factors and experimentally resulted in the best performance.

Originality/value

This constitutes the first comprehensive investigation into infill patterns under DfAM consideration for FRAM, facilitating design and processing choices.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London and The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) supported and funded this work with the project reference 2091639. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Shreeyam Kacker in developing the 3D printer.

Citation

Plocher, J., Wioland, J.-B. and Panesar, A.S. (2022), "Additive manufacturing with fibre-reinforcement – design guidelines and investigation into the influence of infill patterns", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 28 No. 7, pp. 1241-1259. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-09-2021-0223

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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