Investigation of mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites produced by fused deposition modeling in a vacuum environment

The production of thermoplastic composite parts has gained popularity in recent times, with the advent of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) in particular. However, it has been demonstrated that parts produced with printers using EYM exhibit low mechanical properties. There are many studies in the literature to improve the mechanical properties of parts produced with FDM. This thesis presents a study of the EYM printing of continuous carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite (CCRTTC) and short carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite (SCCRTTC) parts in a vacuum environment. In addition to the vacuum environment, infrared heater-assisted FDM printing of SCCRTTC parts was carried out, and the effects of vacuum degree, printing parameters, and hybrid effect (vacuum + infrared heater) on mechanical properties were experimentally investigated. It was observed that the maximum flexural strength and modulus of elasticity increased due to the improved interlayer bonding resulting from the production of SKETTK and KKETTK parts at high vacuum levels and optimum printing parameters.