# Using Electric Fields for in Situ Curing of Carbon Fiber/Phenolic Composites in Additive Manufacturing

## TL;DR

This paper shows how electric fields can be used to cure carbon fiber composites during 3D printing, enabling the creation of multilayer structures without deformation.

## Contribution

The novel use of electric fields for in situ curing of carbon fiber/phenolic composites in additive manufacturing is demonstrated.

## Key findings

- CF/phenolic prepregs reached 210 °C with only 8 W of electric field power.
- Continuous heating and curing was achieved by translating prepregs through an electric field.
- Multilayer structures created using electric field curing showed no macroscopic deformation.

## Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate electrothermal heating
and curing
of carbon fiber (CF)/phenolic composites to enable successive deposition
for additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing). Electric fields are
capable of heating susceptor materials, which makes them a potential
heat source for 3D printing thermoset composites, such as CF/Phenolic
prepregs. We investigated the heating response of CF/phenolic prepregs
when exposed to electric fields and found that our prepregs reached
the target temperature of 210 °C when the electric field applicator
was supplied with low power (8 W). We also show continuous heating
and curing by translating prepregs through an electric field. Finally,
we demonstrate additive manufacturing by manually depositing a layer
or prepreg, using an electric field to perform in situ curing, and
then repeating the process to create multilayer structures. This multilayer
structure showed no macroscopic deformation in contrast to conventional
methods and showed that additive manufacturing is possible.