EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Polymer fiber composites are ideal for lightweight construction applications due to their high strength and low specific weight. A major problem in industrial use is the labor-intensive manufacturing process, which leads to long production times and high unit costs. One approach to the fully automated production of fiber composite structures are 3D printing processes. In recent years, these have become established worldwide in various research groups and in the industrial environment. Currently, components with a profile geometry can be produced using the so-called CFF process, in which the fibers are deposited in a planar manner (Planar-CFF). For some selected applications, e.g. for bending dominated structural beams, such components can be used with good success. However, for a breakthrough of the technology, the extension of the process technology for general component geometries and loading situations is required. To this end, we propose here a new printing process for continuous fiber composites based on 5-axes printing technology. This allows the deposition of fibers in all three spatial directions (Spatial-CFF). The presentation will show current research activities and recent industrial developments of the Spatial-CFF process. This includes an overview of the state of the art of the CFF process, research activities on print head development, a 5-axes machine technology and an innovative design concept based on Spatial-CFF printed high performance composites.