Lower Cost 3D Composite Additive Manufacturing
- Impossible Objects Inc.
- Technical Fibre Products
- UAMMI
The purpose of the project was to find a lower cost carbon fiber material solution that would lower end use part cost produced with the Impossible Objects’ 3D Composite Based Additive Manufacturing (CBAM) technology. The two strands of the research were to consider lower cost carbon tow material provided by Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) and carbon fiber nonwoven veils containing a soluble binder. The CBAM additive process (Figure 1) starts with slicing a CAD file into layers and uses this digital CAD layer data to inkjet print the CAD image onto the fiber sheet, next process step is to deposit thermoplastic powder followed by stacking the sheet, printed sheets are placed into heated compression press to form the composite parts and the final step is to place the build block of consolidated carbon fiber sheets into a media blast cabinet to remove the formed composite parts from the build block. The project goal is to place the build block of compressed fiber sheets into a hot water bath while stirring to remove the formed parts from the build block and recycle the remaining unfused carbon fibers. Figure 1: CBAM additive lamination process steps The project evaluated different lower cost carbon fiber substrate options with different soluble binder types, evaluated different types of nylon 12 powder in an effort to reduce the final part cost of producing a CBAM thermoplastic parts and increase the level of recycling of the removed carbon fiber. TFP was the project partner providing the nonwoven materials, TFP was established nearly 30 years ago and is part of James Cropper plc, TFP is a wet-laid nonwoven manufacturer, producing a diverse range of high-performance veils for an array of challenging applications. TFP's core capability is working in partnership with customers to provide solutions for technically demanding challenges. The project found that the ORNL carbon tow (Figure 2) had a low tensile strength of 416 ksi and would need a new conversion process to chop the fiber material so it could be made into a nonwoven sheet using the wet laid manufacturing process (Figure 3). Due to this situation TFP was unable to convert and disperse the ORNL carbon tow material into a nonwoven veil with a uniform areal weight and pivoted to commercially available carbon fiber nonwovens. A commercially available industrial PAN carbon fiber was used to produce veils for the project. Another project discovery found that using a lower binder content of either Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVoH) or Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) binders in carbon fiber substrates improves material solubility, and would reduce direct touch labor in part removal, but found the CBAM thermoplastic powder deposition causes residual thermoplastic material to remain throughout the printed carbon fiber sheet which has a negative impact removing the CBAM parts from the build block. We recommend further work be conducted on reducing the level of residual thermoplastic powders remaining on the printed CBAM carbon fiber sheets to harvest the benefits of the soluble binder materials. After resolving the CBAM residual powder matter, commercialization of a soluble binder carbon fiber veil will be driven by customer requirements and follow a standard product development and commercialization process.
- Research Organization:
- IACMI The Composite Institute
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Advanced Manufacturing Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0006926
- OSTI ID:
- 1870405
- Report Number(s):
- IACMI/R008-2020/6.28; PA16-0349-6.28.01
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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