A review on additive manufacturing of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers: current methods, materials, mechanical properties, applications and challenges

Abstract

Additive manufacturing has new revolutionary potential for carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs). Additive manufacturing of CFRPs combines the advantages of additive manufacturing such as customization, minimal wastage, low cost, fast prototyping and rapid manufacturing with high specific strength of carbon fiber. This article delivers a comprehensive review of additive manufacturing of short and continuous CFRPs. The article presents insight into different additive manufacturing techniques with an overview of commercially available methods for manufacturing short and continuous CFRPs. This review also includes mechanical characterization and analytical techniques discussed in the literature for CFRPs. The robust applications of short and continuous CFRPs in biomedical, electronics, and aerospace would highlight the importance of research and development in this field. In the end, drawbacks, recent innovations, and the future research directions underline the gap between research and commercialization of additive manufacturing of short and continuous CFRPs.