Additive manufacturing (AM) is currently being used to produce many aerospace
components, with its inherent design flexibility enabling an array of unique
and novel possibilities. But, in order to grow the application space of
polymer AM, the industry has to provide an offering with improved mechanical
properties. Several entities are working toward introducing continuous
fibers embedded into either a thermoplastic or thermoset resin system. This
approach can enable significant improvement in mechanical properties and
could be what is needed to open new and exciting applications within the
aerospace industry.
However, as the technology begins to mature, there are a couple of unsettled
issues that are beginning to come to light. The most common question raised
is whether composite AM can achieve the performance of traditional composite
manufacturing. If AM cannot reach this level, is there enough application
potential to warrant the development investment? The answers are highly
dependent on the individual processors and will require significant
research. Yet, there are still other common challenges that are not isolated
to a singular processor.
The focuses of this chapter are the capability to design and provide robust
structural analysis for continuous fiber-reinforced polymer AM—two unsung
aspects that can make or break this new technology as it finds its way into
the aerospace market. These two unsettled issues, out of many, may require
fundamental changes to the design, analysis, and manufacturing process.
Without solutions to them, adoption by the aerospace industry will be
limited to point design applications, thus constraining the technology to
being nothing more than a specialized tool.