Large-scale additive manufacturing for high-temperature polymer composites presents challenges in printability and the microstructure, limiting its overall application. To address this, a series of experiments were conducted to analyse the effects of various printing parameters, which are material number, printing dimensions, volumetric output, and heating zone temperatures. Additionally, the impact of nozzle pressure and design modifications, such as nozzle insulation, was evaluated.
The results indicate that nozzle insulation significantly affects the required torque and void content of semi-crystalline polymer composites. However, heating zone 1 was identified as a limiting factor for high-temperature amorphous polymer composites, as its heating band did not provide sufficient heat to the barrel.
These findings highlight the importance of optimizing printing parameters and extruder design to expand the applicability of high-temperature polymer composite printing, for example, a greater range of volumetric outputs. It is recommended that additional pressure and temperature sensors be installed between different screw regions for better insight into extrusion behaviour. Additionally, a nozzle design for viscosity measurement is proposed to better investigate the influence of temperature and volume output on the viscosity.