Need for Carbon Fiber Parts
Carbon Fiber parts are:
- Light weight. 70% lighter than steel and 40% lighter than Aluminum.
- Highly Strong and Stiff.
- Heat resistant.
- Posses very low coefficient of thermal expansion.
- Highly corrosion resistant.
- Resistant to chemicals.
- Conductor of heat and electricity.
Challenge in Additive Manufacturing of Carbon fiber Parts
Because of very high melting temperature (around 3600 C) of the Carbon Fiber material, generally used mass manufacturing methods like Injection molding, Blow molding and Die-casting can not be used for Carbon fiber products. The same applies in Additive manufacturing as well. Currently used technologies in additive manufacturing are not capable of handling materials with such a high melting temperature. We can not process carbon fiber the conventional way (Extrusion or Binding and sintering).
Additive Solutions for Carbon Fiber Parts
Composite Parts by ExOne Washout Tooling
ExOne can print on-demand composite parts by their 3D Printed washout tooling.
3D printed soluble support materials are designed to create hollow
tooling and composite parts with trapped geometries. You can order parts
on demand developed with washout tooling for aircraft ducting, pressure
tanks, mandrels and more.
Currently, ExOne only offers printed and coated cores. Composite layup,
curing and washout is completed by our customers using filament winding
or application of prepreg woven fabric. Common layup materials that can
be applied to our cores are: carbon fiber, fiberglass, aramid fiber or
ceramic matrix composites (CMC).
More about ExOne can be found here
Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) Method
Printing is performed with one of the thermoplastic material by FDM method. During the printing layers of FIBER are laid in certain area of the print to improve tensile strength.
Desktop Metal AFP machines
The company revealed Fiber HT and Fiber LT machines recently. The world’s first desktop 3D printer to fabricate high resolution parts
with industrial grade continuous fiber composite materials used in
automated fiber placement (AFP) processes. Based on a new process called
micro automated fiber placement (μAFP), users can now print parts with a
superior level of strength and stiffness, and in a broad range of
materials, that traditionally required million dollar AFP systems. More can be red about the release here.
Advancement by Anisoprint
Anisoprint CCF (Composite Carbon Fiber) and CBF (Composite
Basalt Fiber) are a composite reinforcing fibers in the form of a tow made of thousands of
ultrathin carbon or basalt monofilaments, impregnated with a special polymer composition
ensuring high-quality adhesion between the polymers and the fiber. Composite fiber is used to
reinforce the plastic during fabrication of the part.
Markforged Mark Two
Print composite parts as
strong as aluminum on our top-of-the-line desktop machine. The Mark Two
combines Markforged’s unique continuous carbon fiber reinforcement with
workhorse reliability for the strongest, most versatile parts. As an
industrial 3D printer in a desktop form factor, the Mark Two delivers
high-performance parts straight off the print bed.
Chopped Fiber Filament
In this process shredded bits of carbon fiber are mixed with PLA or ABS or Nylon Or another 3D printing plastic. The filament is manufactured of this mixture of plastic an carbon fiber. In the 3D printing process plastic will be melted and extruded but shredded carbon fibers will be extruded un-melted and will be embedded within the plastic. Carbon fiber enforces the plastic and printed products are many times stronger.
Hobbyists
Can take advantage of open source carbon fiber filaments. There are plenty of brands available on amazon These materials works fine on most personal FDM machines.
Industrial Users
Fortus 380mc and Fortus 450mc industrial FDM machines are able to print high quality and high resolution parts with their Nylon12CF materiel. Find out more about these machines here
Fortus systems are based on Stratasys FDM
technology, so you can build durable parts in production-grade and
high-performance thermoplastics. The Fortus 380mc gives you the option
of up to eight different materials*. The Fortus 450mc lets you build
larger parts with those familiar materials, as well as high-performance
thermoplastics* such as FDM Nylon 12CF (carbon fiber) and ULTEM™ resins,
for specialized industries like medical, aerospace, research and
defense. Create high-performance and complex parts without the need for
additional employee training, as the Fortus systems come equipped with
an intuitive touchscreen interface for an efficient workflow.
*Standard and engineering thermoplastics: Both the
Fortus 380mc and 450mc. High-performance thermoplastics and sacrificial
tooling material: Fortus 450mc only.
References:
ExOne
Desktop Metals
Anisoprint
Markforged
Stratasys
