Mechanical and Thermomechanical Properties of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastic Composite Fabricated Using Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) Method: a Review

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is widely used method to fabricate thermoplastic parts, which are mainly used as rapid prototypes for functional testing with advantages of minimal wastage, and ease of material change. Due to the intrinsically limited mechanical properties of pure thermoplastic materials, there is a critical need to improve mechanical properties for FDM-fabricated pure thermoplastic parts. One of the possible methods is adding reinforced materials (such as carbon fibers) into plastic materials to form thermoplastic matrix carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites those could be directly used in the actual application areas, such as aerospace, automotive, and wind energy. The current study is focused to take a look of the work done in the area of 3D printing with thermoplastic material and carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic material. The study is attempting to take an overview of reinforcement of different materials into thermoplastic in different ways. The effect of reinforcement of carbon fiber into thermoplastic can be studied by using different mechanical and thermo mechanical tests. The effects of different fiber orientation on mechanical properties, effect on infill speed, and nozzle temperature and layer thickness on tensile properties are also studied. This paper reviews work related to investigation of mechanical and thermo mechanical properties of carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite fabricated using fused deposition modelling (FDM).