A Robotic Printer for Nonplanar Additive Manufacturing of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers

Abstract:
With their superior stiffness and strength, carbon fiber reinforced polymers have emerged as a promising material class for lightweight construction. Their strong inherent anisotropic properties make the placement and orientation of the single fibers key in realizing the full potential of this material. As classical methods struggle to achieve this fiber steering, require expensive molds to be manufactured and are limited by geometrically complex parts, fused deposition modeling shows great potential for offering a solution to these problems. This additive manufacturing method allows the use of nonplanar slicing, which is essential for following the out-of-plane directions of optimal material orientation. Many previous approaches for printing carbon fiber reinforced polymers employ industrial robots in different configurations for realizing this process. As the printing system is crucial in enabling multi-axis manufacturing, this work aims to provide a methodological evaluation of possible printing systems for this application. The evaluation is then applied in the conceptualization and design of a robotic printer for the manufacturing of small volumetric parts.