Effects of In-Situ Mechanical and Chemical Polishing on Surface Topography of Additively Manufactured Fiber-Reinforced Polymers
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Additive manufacturing of fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) has revolutionized fused filament fabrication (FFF) by producing polymeric parts with enhanced mechanical properties. However, FFF suffers from poor surface quality and dimensional accuracy, particularly for FRPs, due to their abrasive and rheological nature. This examines an in-situ polishing scheme for FRPs in the FFF configuration. Glass-fiber-reinforced Nylon was used as the study material. Three polishing schemes, mechanical, chemical, and a combined thereof, were adopted along with various parameters in each case. The results show significant surface improvements in all cases, and the combined process can further reduce the Ra value to around 2 μm and the dimensional error to 0.2 mm and less. The combined process also enhances surface uniformity (i.e., similar Ra in all directions). In particular, with the combined approach, the in-situ polishing scheme is expected to improve the quality of 3D printed FRPs significantly.