Advances in fused deposition modelling process for printing the virgin and recycled carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites: A state-of-the-art review

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites provide significant benefits compared to metals owing to their lightweight, corrosive nature, fatigue resistance, specific high strength, and modulus. Carbon fiber has a high ability to conduct heat, low viscosity, and lower thermal expansion coefficient, making it the perfect element for polymer-based additive manufacturing by decreasing the deformation, enhancing the materials characterizations, and allowing for design flexibility. The different printing parameters employed for manufacturing the carbon fiber-reinforced polymer significantly impact the mechanical characteristics that need to be elaborated more in detail. This study provides a review related to the utilization of virgin and recycled carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites in the FDM technique as well as observes the current developments about the strength of polymer-based composites, the bonding gap between the composites, the important printing parameters, and their effects on the mechanical characteristics of the specimens, research challenges, and future directions. Lastly, depending on the present progress situation, recycled and virgin carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites play a vital role in the manufacturing industry and are employed in the developments of the automotive, aerospace, turbine, and dental industries. Therefore, this review study primarily assists the new researchers in producing carbon fiber-reinforcement polymer composites-based specimens using FDM technology.