Page 24 - MSAM-2-1

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Fast layer fiber orientation optimization method

for continuous fiber-reinforced material
extrusion process

Valentin Marchal, Yicha Zhang*, Nadia Labed, Rémy Lachat, and
François Peyraut
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne, Unité Mixte de Recherche 6303, Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Université de Technologie
de Belfort-Montbéliard, F-90010 Belfort, France

Abstract

Material extrusion (MEX) is an additive manufacturing process that uses thermoplastic
layer-by-layer building. The use of continuous fiber-reinforced filament enhances
mechanical properties, making MEX suitable for use in aerospace, automotive, and
robotics industries. This study proposes a laminate optimization method to improve
the stiffness of printed parts with low computing time. The 2D stress-flow-based
method optimizes fiber’s orientation for each layer in the stacking direction, giving
results for a 3D part optimization in a few minutes. Developed with Ansys Parametric
Design Language, the computation tool was tested on printed wrenches, resulting in
an 18% increase in stiffness. The proposed method is applicable to any printable shape.

*Corresponding author:
Yicha Zhang Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Continuous fiber printing; Finite element method;
(yicha.zhang@utbm.fr) Optimization
Citation: Marchal V, Zhang Y,
Labed N, et al., 2023, Fast layer
fiber orientation optimization
method for continuous fiber- 1. Introduction
reinforced material extrusion
process. Mater Sci Add Manuf, Composite materials have seen significant growth since their creation in the 1930s,
2(1): 49.
https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.49 with applications ranging from experimental parts to mass production. Polymer-based
composites, known for their lightweight, corrosion resistance, and high stiffness, are
Received: February 1, 2023 widely used in aerospace, military, wind turbines, and automotive industries . There
[1]
Accepted: February 15, 2023 are two types of fiber-reinforced polymers, short fiber reinforcement or long fiber
Published Online: March 17, 2023 reinforcement, compatible with various fiber such as carbon, glass, and aramid. Long-
fiber reinforcement is the most promising for creating light parts with metal alloy-like
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). [2]
This is an Open Access article properties . However, traditional manufacturing processes are difficult and require
distributed under the terms of the expensive equipment. In contrast, additive manufacturing has experienced significant
Creative Commons Attribution growth in recent decades, with several processes available including material extrusion
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, (MEX), powder bed fusion (PBF), sheet lamination (SHL), binder jetting, directed energy
[3]
provided the original work is deposition, material jetting, and vat photopolymerization (VPP) . Four of these processes
properly cited. have been adapted to fiber-reinforced polymers (PBF [4-6] , VPP , SHL, and MEX [7-9] ), but
[7]
Publisher’s Note: AccScience MEX is the only one widely developed with continuous fiber reinforcement [3,9-11] . The
Publishing remains neutral with MEX process builds parts layer by layer by fusing a thermoplastic filament fed into a
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional printing nozzle by an extruder. The nozzle, controlled by three stepper motors for precise
affiliations. movement in the printing volume, follows routes defined by a slicer software using a

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.49