Method for 3D printing of continuous fiber self-reinforced composite material
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of 3D printing of continuous fiber reinforced composites, in particular to a method for 3D printing of continuous fiber self-reinforced composites.
Background
The 3D printing technology of the continuous fiber reinforced composite material is a novel composite material processing technology, a matrix material and the continuous fiber are compounded and superposed to form a composite material part by adopting the principle of 3D printing layer by layer, the process does not need to prepare a mold and a prepreg tape in advance, the cost and the process complexity are reduced, the direction of the reinforced fiber can be accurately controlled, the composite material part with customized performance is obtained, and the rapid manufacturing of the composite material part with a complex structure can be realized. However, the process molding technology still has some inherent defects, such as insufficient pressure of a fiber and matrix impregnation cavity in the printing process, rapidness in the printing process, short impregnation time of the fiber and resin and the like, which causes poor interface bonding performance of the composite material and difficulty in greatly improving the performance of a product, and meanwhile, the fiber reinforced composite material is often difficult to recycle in a non-degraded manner, and even when a thermoplastic matrix material is adopted, the matrix and the reinforced fiber are difficult to recycle respectively, so that the problems of high cost, low material recycling rate and the like of the 3D printing composite material are caused, and the practical application of the 3D printing composite material is restricted.
The reinforcing phase and the matrix phase of the self-reinforced composite material are the same or the same polymer, so that the reinforcing phase and the matrix phase can be compatible with each other, a good interface form is formed, the transmission of stress is effectively promoted, the reinforcing effect of the fiber is fully exerted, and the composite material is endowed with excellent mechanical properties. In addition, the self-reinforced composite material is a thermoplastic material, can be recycled into raw materials only by heating and melting, and has high recycling rate. The self-reinforced composite material has been successfully applied to the fields of automobiles, sports and leisure and the like based on the advantages of excellent interface performance, light weight, easy recovery and the like. The traditional forming method of the continuous fiber self-reinforced composite material comprises a fiber hot-pressing method, a film embedded hot-pressing method, a solution dipping hot-pressing method and the like, has the defects of small size, simple shape, long forming period, high cost, low production efficiency and the like of products, and in order to overcome the process limitation, the forming method of the continuous fiber self-reinforced composite material with high efficiency and low cost becomes the research focus in the field.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, the invention aims to provide a method for 3D printing of a continuous fiber self-reinforced composite material, which solves the problems of poor interface performance, difficult recycling and the like of the 3D printed composite material on one hand, and realizes low-cost and rapid manufacturing of the continuous fiber self-reinforced composite material on the other hand.
In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:
a method of 3D printing a continuous fiber self-reinforced composite, comprising the steps of:
1) establishing a three-dimensional model of a self-reinforced composite material part: according to the requirements of the self-reinforced composite material part, establishing a three-dimensional model 1 by using computer aided design software CAD, and exporting the three-dimensional model as a stl format file;
2) determining a printing temperature interval: the self-reinforced composite material is a thermoplastic high polymer material with different physical forms, and comprises a reinforcing phase 2 and a matrix phase 4 which have the same chemical structure and have different melting points, wherein the reinforcing phase 2 is continuous long fiber, and the matrix phase 4 is resin; the printing temperature range is higher than the melting point of the matrix phase 4 and lower than the melting point of the reinforcing phase 2, the surface of the reinforcing phase 2 is melted in the printing process, the melted part is solidified into an interface phase 3, the interface bonding performance is improved, and the rest part, namely the core fiber of the reinforcing phase 2 keeps high orientation;
3)3D printing preparation of the self-reinforced composite material: importing the stl format file in the step 1) into computer aided manufacturing software (CAM), determining printing temperature according to the step 2), determining 3D printing process parameters, and generating a printing command file of the self-reinforced composite material part by combining slice software Skeinpurg of the computer aided manufacturing software (CAM); setting and adjusting a 3D printer, and finally printing to obtain a self-reinforced composite material part;
4) recovering the self-reinforced composite material: during recovery, the self-reinforced composite material is physically crushed and heated to a temperature higher than the melting point of the reinforcing phase 2 until the self-reinforced composite material is completely melted, namely 100% of the self-reinforced composite material is recovered to be used as a raw material for recycling.
The thermoplastic polymer material in the step 2) comprises a Polyethylene (PE) base, a polypropylene (PP) base, a polylactic acid (PLA) base, a nylon (PA) base, a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) base, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) base, a polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) base and a polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) base.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:
(1) compared with the traditional technology for manufacturing the self-reinforced composite material, the method can be used for quickly and efficiently manufacturing the self-reinforced composite material part with a specific and complex shape without a die, and the mechanical properties can be controlled by changing the scanning distance, the layering thickness and the like by utilizing the 3D printing advantages.
(2) Compared with 3D printing continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite materials, the 3D printing self-reinforced composite material reinforcing phase 2 and the matrix phase 4 are the same or the same polymer, so that the two materials can be compatible with each other to form a good interface, stress transfer is effectively promoted, and the reinforcing effect of fibers is fully exerted; on the other hand, the reinforced phase 2 and the matrix phase 4 of the self-reinforced composite material can be recycled into raw materials only by heating and melting, and the recycling rate is high.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional model of a self-reinforced composite product and a self-reinforcing principle according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Detailed Description
The invention is described in detail below with reference to the figures and examples.
Embodiment 1, a method of 3D printing a continuous fiber self-reinforced composite comprising the steps of:
1) establishing a three-dimensional model of a self-reinforced composite material part: referring to fig. 1, according to the requirements of the self-reinforced composite material part, a 180 × 10 × 2 three-dimensional model 1 is established by using SolidWorks of computer aided design software CAD, and the three-dimensional model is exported to be a stl format file;
2) determining a printing temperature interval: the self-reinforced composite material is a thermoplastic high polymer material with different physical forms, a reinforced phase 2 and a matrix phase 4 with the same chemical structure and melting point difference are adopted, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber UHMWPE is selected as the reinforced phase 2, high density polyethylene HDPE is selected as the matrix phase 4, the melting point of the high density polyethylene HDPE is 135 ℃, the melting point of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber UHMWPE is 147 ℃, the printing temperature interval is 136-146 ℃, the surface of the reinforced phase 2 is melted in the printing process, the melted part is solidified into an interface phase 3, the interface bonding performance is improved, and the rest part, namely the core fiber of the reinforced phase 2 is kept highly oriented;
3)3D printing preparation of the self-reinforced composite material: importing the stl format file in the step 1) into a Replicator G of computer aided manufacturing software CAM, determining that the printing temperature is 145 ℃ according to the step 2), simultaneously determining 3D printing process parameters of fiber filling scanning distance of 1.0mm, layering thickness of 0.3mm and printing speed of 100mm/min for the 3D printing, and generating a printing command file of the self-reinforced composite material part by combining slice software Skein form of the computer aided manufacturing software CAM; setting and adjusting a 3D printer, and finally printing to obtain a self-reinforced composite material part;
4) recovering the self-reinforced composite material: during recycling, the self-reinforced composite material is physically crushed and then placed into a screw extruder to be heated to over 160 ℃, the polyethylene blend is extruded, 100% of the polyethylene blend is recycled to be used as a raw material, and the raw material is recycled.
The invention takes continuous long fibers with the same chemical structure and different physical forms as a reinforcing phase 2 and resin as a matrix phase 4, and prepares the self-reinforced composite material in a 3D printing mode. The invention utilizes the advantages of the 3D printing manufacturing process, and can quickly manufacture parts with specific complex shapes without molds. The preparation period of the traditional self-reinforced composite material is shortened, and the cost is reduced. The reinforcing phase 2 and the matrix phase 4 of the manufactured self-reinforced composite material are the same group of polymers, and the reinforcing phase 2 and the matrix phase 4 can be mutually fused in the printing process to form a good interface, so that the self-reinforced composite material has excellent mechanical properties compared with pure materials; the self-reinforced composite material can be recycled into raw materials only by heating and melting, the recycling rate is high, the utilization rate of the material is increased, and the cost and pollution of the recycled composite material are reduced.