A study on continuous Kevlar fiber-reinforced composites: Insights from additive and conventional manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing of fiber-reinforced composites finds numerous applications in lightweight structures. Fabrication of complex yet lightweight structures with required strength can be achieved with additively manufactured fiber-reinforced composites. Continuous fibers are a preferred choice compared to chopped fibers. The paper aims to study the influence of Kevlar fiber orientations on mechanical performance of composites fabricated by additive manufacturing. Specimens were prepared as per ASTM standards by additive manufacturing of composites using Kevlar fibers and onyx material. Experiments were performed by varying fiber orientation to 0, 45 and 90°. Moreover, the additive-manufactured composite specimens were compared with the conventionally manufactured composites. The results indicated that the reinforcement (fibers) when laid at 0° significantly improves the tensile performance by 150 MPa when compared with other fiber orientations. It was also found that the additive manufacturing ensures precise deposition of fibers compared to the conventional method ensuring better performance of composites. A significant increment of 78% was achieved in tensile strength of additively manufactured composites compared to conventionally manufactured samples.