Fused Granulated Fabrication (FGF) Processing Study for Novel sCF/LMPAEK Recycled Material to Manufacture Aeronautic Structural Parts

ECO-CLIP has developed a novel recycled 40wt% short CF/LMPAEK material from factory scrap that has been used to manufacture aircraft structural parts using injection molding (IM), the conventional manufacturing process, and fussed granulated fabrication (FGF) as an alternative one. In this sense, a technical study of the material processability has been made for FGF. The most important results are presented in this work, such as fiber breakage, carbon fiber percentage after and before processing, thermal behavior and thermal induce history, and mechanical properties such as compression, tensile and flexural behavior Three different nozzle diameters (0.8, 1.2, and 1.5mm) were used to ensure processability, mechanical requirements, and physical performance. Carrying out a direct comparison with the results achieved by IM. Other PAEKs have been processed by FGF or traditional fused filament fabrication (FFF) for comparative purposes.