The mechanical benefits gained from using carbon nanotubes in liquid thermosetting resins gives stereolithograhy 3-D printing a promising future in the world of additive manufacturing. There are some challenges faced with obtaining consistent results in this area of research, however. The primary reason is due to the unique aspect ratio of the carbon nanotubes which leads to uneven distribution during the preparation of the polymer matrix composite. Furthermore, it is also difficult to achieve complete photo-polymerization of the part due to the carbon nanotubes interference with the UV light during the curing process.

Here the effect of MWCNT filler on mechanical strength and stiffness of 3-D printed polymer-matrix composite using stereolithography printer is studied. MWCNTs were de-agglomerated in Toluene and introduced into photopolymer resin at various weight loadings. 3-D printing was performed with the composite resin followed by uniaxial tensile testing to obtain data to analyze for possible mechanical stress and strength benefits. This work concluded that the addition of .005 weight % of MWCNT showed an improvement of 24.8 % and 9.6 % for stress failure and Young’s Modulus respectively compared to neat sample. The addition of 0.01 and 0.02 weight % had adverse effects of lowering the Young’s Modulus and causing stress failure.