Analysis of the influence of the variables of the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process on the mechanical properties of a carbon fiber-reinforced polyamide

Abstract The industrial field is focusing on the rapid prototyping in order to produce complex geometries with a high level of design flexibility and substantial reduction of the manufacturing time. The increasing use of composites manufactured by FDM process make necessary to obtain a summary of the relative influence of the variables of the manufacturing process on the mechanical properties of the material. The main aim of this work is to study the influence of printing parameters on the mechanical properties of samples made of polyamide reinforced with short carbon fibers. Thermal and mechanical tests will be carried out for evaluating this influence. Different printing parameters were used for manufacturing samples and comparing the results obtained, which will be discussed in order to justify the behavior of these samples under different stresses. Therefore, in some reinforced polymers, the mechanical properties depend on the crystallinity of the composite matrix and many times this factor is influenced by the environment in which samples are manufactured. Some heterogeneous behavior can appear in parts due to the crystallinity variation. In this work, an analysis of the factors affecting this variable are considered and researched. At the end of the study, the best combination of printing parameters will be set from an engineering approach.