3D-printed composites are rapidly gaining traction in military applications due to their ability to produce complex, lightweight parts. Demand for weight reduction in aircraft, vehicles, and portable equipment makes fiber-reinforced composites appealing, as they have high strength-to-weight ratios and enable part consolidation, eliminating numerous fasteners and joints.
This heat map shows stress and strain distribution across the geometry under the applied load. Image: Continuous Composites
Idaho-based Continuous Composites (CCI) drives advanced composite manufacturing for such applications with six-axis 3D-printing technology. The company was recently awarded a $1.9 million Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop a finite element analysis (FEA) tool for continuous fiber 3D printing (CF3D). This contract, which started in November 2024, will run through August 2026 and represents a significant advancement in the simulation of anisotropic composite materials, which have unique directional strengths based on fiber orientations.
Currently, commercially available FEA solutions are limited to isotropic materials, such as metals, where strength and stress responses are uniform in all directions. However, CF3D composites are anisotropic, with primary strength in the direction of the fibers. This creates a challenge for traditional FEA software, which cannot accurately predict material behavior based on fiber orientation.
CCI is partnering with industry experts on the development of this new FEA tool. The tool will ingest CF3D toolpath data to generate mesh representations that more accurately reflect fiber orientation, material behavior, and structural performance of how anisotropic parts will react to real-world loads.
As part of this effort, CCI will integrate the new tool into CF3D Studio, enabling the prediction of material properties and performance before physical testing begins. This capability is expected to dramatically reduce development time and increase reliability in the design of complex composite parts used in mission-critical applications.
Continuous Composites
www.continuouscomposites.com
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense, 3D printing • additive • stereolithography, Software • FEA, Materials • advanced
