Technique for processing of continuous carbon fibre reinforced peek for fused filament fabrication

3D printing of light-weight and mechanically-strong structures facilitates several applications. 3D printing of continuous carbon fibre reinforced polyetheretherketone (PEEK) presents exciting possibilities as the high stiffness and strength of the high-performance plastic PEEK reinforced with carbon fibre are paired with the agility of the 3D printing process. The Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) process is used to print these parts, and a pultrusion system was designed and used to produce the filaments since they are not commercially available. This paper describes the design and construction of a pultrusion system within a wider project on carbon fibre reinforced PEEK FFF printing. This system is then used to produce the FFF filament with pultrusion speed and temperature optimisation.