Fiber-reinforced soft composites (FrSCs) are composites that are made up of polymeric fibers with specific material properties and hierarchical length-scales, embedded within another soft-polymer matrix. This paper is aimed at systematically studying the effect of key processing parameters viz., fiber mat alignment, area coverage, and surface energy of the fiber carrier substrate, on the tensile properties and failure mechanisms seen in 3D printed FrSCs. A novel electrospinning-based"direct-write" system isused for creating the aligned and random nylon fiber mats. The fiber mats are then characterized for their diameter distributions, effective area coverage, number density, and tensile properties. The surface energy of the fiber carrier substrate is found to be critical to the fiber transfer efficiency of the stamping operation used in the 3D printing process, with polytetrafluoroethylene-coated aluminum films being more effective due to their low surface energy. Tensile testing results show that depending on the extent of alignment and the fiber content present in the 3D printed composite, it can have a 40%-260% improvement in the elastic modulus over that of the base UV-curable polymer. The composites alsoshow evidence of characteristic failure mechanisms seen in the domain of nanocomposite materials, viz., fiber-induced local plastic deformation (crazing), crack arrest and deflection, fiber strengthening, and fiber pull-out. The evidence of fiber pull-out also points to the formation of an interfacial polymer sheath around the fibers. The elastic modulus of this sheath is estimated to be an order of magnitude higher than the base polymer.

The objective of this research is to develop a novel, multi-material additive manufacturing technique for fabricating laminated polymer nancomposite structures that have characteristic length-scales in the tens of millimeters range. The 3D printing technology presented in this paper combines the conventional inkjet-based printing of ultraviolet (UV) curable polymers with the deposition of either aligned or random nano-scale fiber mats, in between each printed layer. The fibers are first generated using an electrospinning process that produces the roll of fibers. These fibers are then transferred to the part being manufactured using a stamping operation. The process has been proven to manufacture multi-material laminated nanocomposites having different 3D geometries. The dimensional accuracy of the parts is seen to be a function of the interaction between the different UV-curable polymer inks. In general, the addition of the nanofibers in the form of laminates is seen to improve the mechanical properties of the material, with the Young’s modulus and the ultimate breaking stress showing the most improvement. The pinning and deflection of micro-cracks by the nano-scale fiber mats has been identified to be the underlying mechanism responsible for these improved mechanical properties. The thermogravimetric analysis reveals that these improvements in the mechanical properties are obtained without drastically altering the thermal degradation pattern of the base polymer.

The objective of this research is to develop a novel, multimaterial additive manufacturing technique for fabricating laminated polymer nanocomposite structures that have characteristic length-scales in the tens of millimeters range. The three-dimensional (3D) printing technology presented in this paper combines the conventional inkjet-based printing of ultraviolet (UV) curable polymers with the deposition of either aligned or random nanoscale fiber mats, in between each printed layer. The fibers are first generated using an electrospinning process that produces the roll of fibers. These fibers are then transferred to the part being manufactured using a stamping operation. The process has been proven to manufacture multimaterial laminated nanocomposites having different 3D geometries. The dimensional accuracy of the parts is seen to be a function of the interaction between the different UV-curable polymer inks. In general, the addition of the nanofibers in the form of laminates is seen to improve the mechanical properties of the material, with the Young’s modulus and the ultimate breaking stress showing the most improvement. The pinning and deflection of microcracks by the nanoscale fiber mats has been identified to be the underlying mechanism responsible for these improved mechanical properties. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) reveals that these improvements in the mechanical properties are obtained without drastically altering the thermal degradation pattern of the base polymer.

The 3D printing of fiber-reinforced soft composites (FrSCs) is a hybrid process that combines conventional inkjet-based 3D printing with the directed deposition of electrospun polymer fiber mats. This paper investigates the spreading characteristics of droplets when deposited on fibrous substrates, under conditions relevant to 3D printing of aligned FrSCs. Both single and multidroplet impingement studies are conducted on substrates with varying fiber number densities. High-speed imaging is used to study the characteristic time-scales and the spreading behavior of the droplets. The single droplet impingement studies on stationary substrates reveal that the presence of fibers promotes droplet spreading along the length the fibers. Occasional surface energy variations in the fiber mats in the form of voids and fiber bundles are also seen to affect the droplet shape and the characteristic spreading times. In the case of a moving substrate, the droplets are seen to spread the most during in-line printing, i.e., when the direction of the printing velocity coincides with the direction of fiber alignment. They spread the least during orthogonal printing, i.e., when the direction of the printing velocity is perpendicular to the direction of fiber alignment. The printing of straight lines shows an interesting edge retraction phenomenon that gets accentuated the most in the case of in-line printing. The findings of the high-speed imaging studies have been confirmed by 3D printing comparable artifacts using UV curable inks. These studies indicate that for a given fiber mat and UV curable ink combination, the choice of the in-line or orthogonal printing strategy has implications for the overall printing time, fiber content, edge resolution and surface quality of the 3D printed FrSC part.

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