'The University of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology'
Abstract
Carbon fiber (CF) reinforced thermosetting resin composites offer a wide range
of high performance features including excellent strength, modulus and thermal
resistance and light weight. Consequently, they are increasingly demanded by
aerospace and automotive industries due to the tighter requirements of the transport
vehicles for lightweight as well as higher payloads. Although thermoplastics and their
composites have been widely used in additive manufacturing (AM), to date it is
difficult to manufacture carbon fibers reinforced thermosetting composite parts via
AM technologies. Therefore, this study developed a novel method based on selective
laser sintering (SLS) to fabricate high-performance carbon fiber/epoxy resin
composites. The response surface method was employed to study the processing
parameters affecting the quality of final parts, and an optimized processing condition
was obtained.Mechanical Engineerin