Continuous fibre reinforced Vat photopolymerisation (CONFIB-VAT)

Additive manufacture of fibre-reinforced composites is one of the most recent technological advancements in composites production. However, research on continuous fibre-reinforced composites produced by Vat photopolymerisation is severely lacking. This paper proposed a new 3D printing process, called continuous fibre reinforced Vat photopolymerisation (CONFIB-VAT). Plain and fibre-reinforced tensile specimens were produced and systematically tested. The results showed that the mechanical properties were not affected by the printing direction. The influence of fibre volume fraction on CONFIB-VAT composites was also studied. A 10% fibre volume content embedment resulted in more than a 500% increase in ultimate tensile strength. For the first time, this study studied the effects of fibre angle placement and the shadow under fibre shielding during UV curing, resulting in incomplete curing. The use of post-curing to overcome the shadow problem was investigated and considerably improved mechanical property. Additionally, simultaneous fibre embedding in the XY and Z planes was achieved, which allowed for greater flexibility in fibre arrangement and composite design. Overall, this research establishes a robust platform for Vat photopolymerisation based composite printing with virtually no restrictions on the materials and fibres printed. CONFIB-VAT significantly expands the material palette for emerging technologies and provides guidance for the design of structural 3D printed composite components and will aid in the development of commercial Vat photopolymerisation composite 3D printing machines.