Fused Deposition Modelling of high temperature polymers: Exploring CNT PEEK composites

The Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM™) process owes its popularity to its hardware versatility, low cost and wide range of materials (and colours) available. In this study, PEEK was produced with 1% and 5% carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and processed in a modified FDM system able to operate with high temperature polymers. The tensile strength, layer bonding and microstructure of the plain and CNT loaded PEEK samples were investigated throughout the three steps of manufacturing: compounded composite feedstock filaments, single FDM deposited layers and fabricated test specimens. Interestingly, every step of processing seems to fabricate structures of lower performance. As part of the characterisation of the FDM structures, short shear beam tests were used as a new method to assess layer-to-layer bonding.