Investigation on mechanical properties of polyamide 6 and carbon fiber reinforced composite manufactured by fused deposition modeling technique

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the additive manufacturing (AM) techniques in which intricate shapes are produced effectively with time and cost. Thermoplastics and filler-incorporated thermoplastics composite materials were used in the form of filament. The mechanical properties of the printed sample varies with the parameters involved in FDM printing. In the present investigation, polyamide 6 (PA) with 20 wt.% of short carbon fiber (CF) was used as filament. The filaments were printed with different raster orientations namely 0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, and +/- 45 degrees by keeping other printing parameters constant such as 100% infill density, 0.2 mm layer thickness, 30 mm/min printing speed, 240 degrees C printing temperature, 80 degrees C bed temperature, and XY or 0 degrees body orientation with a clear justification studied. The printed samples were investigated for structure, morphology and mechanical properties using tensile test and impact test respectively. The results shows that bidirectional +/- 45 degrees raster orientation specimens show the highest tensile strength of 35.2 MPa in comparison with 0 degrees,45 degrees, and 90 degrees raster orientation, and PACF composite material showed improved mechanical properties as compared to pure PA. The highest impact energy was observed for a PACF composite with a raster orientation of 90 degrees. Morphological analysis of composites showed a uniform dispersion of CF in PA matrix and improved interfacial adhesion between matrix and reinforcement.