3D Printing of continuous fiber composites using two-stage UV curable resin†

3D printing allows for moldless fabrication of continuous fiber composites with high design freedom and low manufacturing cost per part, which makes it particularly well-suited for rapid prototyping and composite product development. Compared to thermal-curable resins, UV-curable resins enable the 3D printing of composites with high fiber content and faster manufacturing speeds. However, the printed composites exhibit low mechanical strength and weak interfacial bonding for high-performance engineering applications. In addition, they are typically not reprocessable or repairable; if they could be, it would dramatically benefit the rapid prototyping of composite products with improved durability, reliability, cost savings, and streamlined workflow. In this study, we demonstrate that the recently emerged two-stage UV-curable resin is an ideal material candidate to tackle these grand challenges in 3D printing of thermoset composites with continuous carbon fiber. The resin consists primarily of acrylate monomers and crosslinkers with exchangeable covalent bonds. During the printing process, composite filaments containing up to 30.9% carbon fiber can be rapidly deposited and solidified through UV irradiation. After printing, the printed composites are subjected to post-heating. Their mechanical stiffness, strength, and inter-filament bonding are significantly enhanced due to the bond exchange reactions within the thermoset matrix. Furthermore, the utilization of the two-stage curable resin enables the repair, reshaping, and recycling of 3D printed thermosetting composites. This study represents the first detailed study to explore the benefits of using two-stage UV curable resins for composite printing. The fundamental understanding could potentially be extended to other types of two-stage curable resins with different molecular mechanisms.