About this Abstract |
Meeting |
2024 ASC Technical Conference, US-Japan Joint Symposium, D30 Meeting
|
Symposium
|
2024 ASC Technical Conference, US-Japan Joint Symposium, D30 Meeting
|
Presentation Title |
Additive Manufacturing of Thermoset Composites via Infrared-Assisted Frontal Polymerization |
Author(s) |
Samuel Radosevich, Carter Dojan, Mostafa Yourdkhani |
On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Carter Dojan |
Abstract Scope |
Traditional manufacturing of fiber-reinforced polymer composites requires processing the material using expensive molds and tooling in ovens or autoclaves during long cure cycles, limiting the production rate and design complexity of composite structures. Additive manufacturing (AM) is promising for rapid, flexible design of composite structures; however, AM of composites using traditional materials and cure cycles is quite challenging. We have recently demonstrated the AM of discontinuous fiber-reinforced thermoset composites via a novel frontal polymerization (FP)-assisted direct ink writing (DIW) technique. In this approach, composite inks are deposited on a heated bed to initiate the frontal reaction, which then propagates within the deposited material to fully cure the printed composite structure. However, the behavior and reaction rate of FP varies as the number of printed layers increases, due to temperature gradients above the heated bed, resulting in cure gradient in the part and limiting the scalability of the manufacturing process. Here, we present a new approach for uniform curing and scalable AM of discontinues fiber-reinforced composites by remote radiative heating of the deposited composite inks using a heater mounted on the printhead of a robotic system. Use of the inverted heater allows for large-area heating of cured substrate layers as well as freshly deposited inks to ensure a relatively uniform front velocity and cure, regardless of the ink’s position relative to the build plate. The effects of various processing conditions are studied to control the quality of printed composites and demonstrate the AM of fully cured structures. |
Proceedings Inclusion? |
Definite: Post-meeting proceedings |