More freedom for research activities with continuous fiber 3D printing by Anisoprint open system
Continuous fiber 3D printing can help obtain composites with new properties, expand their application scope, and make discoveries if researchers have enough freedom in terms of fiber laying trajectories and materials choice. Anisoprint open system gives such opportunities.
Custom trajectories of fiber laying allow solving the Kirsch problem more effectively.
The fiber steering plate is an experimental demonstrator of the method of efficient reinforcement of parts with the holes.
Holes are stress concentrators, significantly reducing the strength of structural elements. Traditionally, to increase the strength of an element, a part thickness is enhanced that leads to an increase of the part weight.
Samples can be reinforced by curvilinear trajectories according to the load distribution.
Such reinforcement doesn’t require weight increase. It’s possible with an open system of Anisoprint.
In Anisoprint open system fiber laying trajectories don’t limit by the part geometry. You can choose arbitrary trajectories that suit your purposes the best. Thereby, self-sensing composite parts for monitoring critical structures were obtained.
Brightlands Materials Center, a Dutch research center, has developed anisoprinted composites with self-sensing functionality.
Self-sensing is the ability of a material to sense its own condition, the material itself is used as a sensor. Polymer-matrix composites, containing continuous carbon fiber, are known materials that have self-sensing capabilities based on measurable changes in electrical resistance of the continuous fibers. The practical importance of such products is in structural health monitoring in airplanes or critical parts of constructions like bridges.
Usually, self-sensing material is made with the traditional composite manufacturing techniques that are the complex several-stages processes made by the special equipment.
Brightlands Materials Center is combining the self-sensing of continuous fiber with the fabrication of the composites by anisoprinting to make it more effective.
Brightlands researchers have conducted an experiment to confirm their method of 3D printing of self-sensing composites by monitoring deformation in a simple bending beam and a scale model of a pedestrian bridge.
For sensing it’s crucial to have full freedom of the carbon fiber layout because it has to stick out of the part to be able to make connections to the monitoring electronic hardware.
Anisoprint open system allows very precise positioning and orientation of continuous carbon fibers. Thus, it is possible to place the fibers in the selected locations inside the product that forms an integral part of the structure. This means that the carbon fibers are positioned where they are needed to act as “sensors” to control the structure, and multiple fibers can form a range of sensors throughout the part.
New horizons for universities working in the field of mechanical engineering, composites, additive manufacturing, carbon, etc.
Several European universities already use all the possibilities of the open system in continuous fiber 3D printing. Alexander Matschinski, Research Associate at TUM (Technical University of Munich) says:
“ We are investigating new ways to combine already existing production approaches for reinforced materials with a new understanding of additive manufacturing.
We are investigating advanced composite materials by combining modified materials with process development on the open system of Anisoprint. Moreover, we are using the possibilities in advanced path control to investigate optimization approaches in case of load path orientated fiber distribution.
Anisoprint with an open system today gives us the opportunity to explore the new possibilities.”
