Fabrication and Measurement of 3D Printed Retroreflective Fibers

Abstract

Additive manufacturing enables new fiber preform geometries to be built that were either impossible or extremely difficult with traditional subtractive manufacturing methods. Additionally fiber thermal drawing is undergoing an explosion of interest due to new materials and fiber functions. We fabricate a retroreflective fiber that possesses a complex cross-section and material combination not achievable with other textile fiber fabrication methods such melt extrusion. This is the first such 3D-printing-derived fiber to demonstrate optical scattering properties with a non-circular, non-convex cross-section.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 22, 2019
Accession Number
AD1100176

Entities

People

  • Gabriel Z. Loke
  • Michael Ghebrebrhan
  • Yoel Fink

Organizations

  • United States Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Fabrication
  • Filaments
  • Fused Deposition Modeling
  • Glass
  • Glass Transition Temperature
  • Manufacturing
  • Materials
  • Materials Engineering
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Optical Materials
  • Printing
  • Refractive Index
  • Transition Temperature

Readers

  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.
  • Optical Fiber Sensing and Electromagnetic Propagation.
  • Systems Analysis and Design