Magnetic‑Field‑Assisted Thermoplastic Composite Shaping: Heat‐softened Volumetric Reconfiguration for Accelerated Manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) of multifunctional thermoplastic composites faces persistent trade‑offs among speed, geometric complexity, and property control. Volumetric AM (VAM) of composites, relying on beam‑based volumetric photopolymerization, is an emerging manufacturing with the potential to revolutionize all parts manufacturing; however, one of its primary hurdles is scalability to relatively large structures dimensioned at centimetres and meters. A disruptive manufacturing process is addressed here, demonstrating a magnetic field‑driven volumetric reconfiguration in heated, flat composite samples: magnetic‐field‐assisted (MFA) thermoplastic composite reshaping via utilizing untreated 10 Vol.% magnetic iron particles embedded poly‐lactic acid (PLA) composite samples (particle diameter of 10 micrometer). The study shows that MFA reshaping circumvents the AM's scalability limitations by decoupling the geometric features from the heat‐polymerization process in 10 cm‐length flat samples (0.8–2.0 mm thicknesses) and 20 cm‐length aerofoil samples, supported by magneto‑mechanical theoretical estimations, at temperatures 100% lower than process temperatures and within seconds while minimizing interlayer defects.