Effects of manufacturing process and surface treatments on mechanical properties of PLA/SCF composites using extrusion printing

Short carbon fiber (SCF) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composites were fabricated by extrusion printing, and the effects of process parameters and surface treatments on the mechanical properties of composites were studied. Based on the rheological properties of composites and the extrusion process simulation, pure PLA specimens and PLA/SCF specimens were manufactured under different printing parameters. Three kinds of surface treatment were adopted to improve the mechanical properties. The experimental results show that SCF can effectively improve the tensile strength and bending strength, but the compressive strength decreased. The specimen had the best mechanical properties when the layer height was 0.1 mm and the nozzle diameter was 0.6 mm. The mechanical properties can be further improved by coupling agent coating method, and the compressive strength was even higher than that of pure PLA specimen. The research in this paper can provide a reference for the fabrication of thermoplastic composites with excellent mechanical properties by extrusion printing.