Investigation of Fiber Orientation of Fused Filament Fabricated CFRP Composites via an External Magnetic Field

For carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites, controlling the interior fiber distribution and orientation during the manufacturing process is a common approach to optimal the structural performance of fabricated parts. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the fiber alignment during the additive manufacturing of CFRP composites. This study proposes a magnetic field controlled (MFC) method to control the fiber orientation during the fused filament fabrication (FFF) of nickel-coated carbon fiber (NCF) reinforced polymer composites. Firstly, a theoretical analysis model is established to explore the suitable magnetic field intensity for fiber rotation. Secondly, a customized FFF system with MFC components is implemented, and a polylactic acid matrix composite containing 10 wt. % NCF is printed to validate the feasibility of the proposed approach. The microstructure of the printed samples is examined to assess the effectiveness of the method. Finally, uniaxial tensile tests are performed to investigate the impact of fiber orientation adjustment on the mechanical properties. The experimental results reveal that the MFC method can effectively align the interior fiber orientation of CFRP composites, leading to a significant increase in the tensile strength (approximately 8.8 %) and Young's modulus (around 10.5 %) of the printed samples.