Continuously Reinforced Polymeric Composite for Additive Manufacturing—Development and Efficiency Analysis

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a rapidly growing technology, referring to a 3D design process by which digital data builds a physical object in layers by depositing the printed material. The AM has evolved in the aviation, automotive, and medical industries. The AM development for fiber-reinforced composites is the point of current interest, with most research focused on using short fibers. However, notwithstanding particular technological complexities, continuous filaments have superior tensile properties compared to short fibers. Therefore, this manuscript develops an adaptive continuous reinforcement approach for AM based on polymeric material extrusion (ME) technology. It combines the raw material production process, including the ability to vary constituents (e.g., filament materials, reinforcement percentage, and recycled plastic replacement ratio), and the reinforcement efficiency analysis regarding the experimentally verified numerical model. The literature review has identified compatible materials for ensuring sustainable and high-performance plastic composites reinforced with continuous fibers. In addition, it identified the applicability of recycled polymers in developing ME processes. Thus, the study includes an experimental program to investigate the mechanical performance of 3D printed samples (polylactic acid, PLA, matrix reinforced with continuous aramid filament) through a tensile test. Recycled polymer replaced 40% of the virgin PLA. The test results do not demonstrate the recycled polymer’s negative effect on the mechanical performance of the printed samples. Moreover, the recycled material reduced the PLA cost by almost twice. However, together with the potential efficiency of the developed adaptive manufacturing technology, the mechanical characteristics of the printed material revealed room for printing technology improvement, including the aligned reinforcement distribution in the printed product and printing parameters’ setup.