Mark One - Carbon Fiber 3D Printer

[Razorette3D]

There is a patent for this I believe, but I wonder if the other companies like Stratasys/MakerBot and 3DSystems/Cubify will quickly come up their their own carbon fiber printers.

[LambdaFF]

The article on 3Dprint is nice. Having seen composite parts made "the old way" with layers upon layers then vacuum bag, layers, vacuum bag ... it seems to me that is will save a lot of time.

I for one am very interested by the announcement, but I will need to see their software and the way it handles layer orientation before going any further.

[bringho]

I'm quite certain the strength of a 3D printed part (for example a curved shell like a nose cone, a wing tip or something like that) with carbon strands embedded in the filament never can compete with the same shell created the regular way with layers of weaves criss crossing over a the bulged surface because of the way the model is sliced and printed layer by layer.

Some of the properties may be achieved if one were to have the build plate swivel under the extruder. This together with a slicer that slices the thickness of the surface should be able to produce a part with each layer consisting of fibres criss crossing each other...

[bringho]

How do they cut the carbon fibre when the head moves between extrude paths?

[Luv2Fight]

Looks like they are now taking pre-orders for their printer. You have 2 options... The Mark One printer for $4,999 or the Mark One Developer Kit for $8799.

The Mark One ships with:

• Mark One 3D Printer
• MarkForged software
• Carbon fiber filament sample, 100 cm³ (6.1 in³)
• Fiberglass filament sample, 150 cm³ (9.2 in³)
• Nylon filament, 1000 cm³ (61 in³)
• PLA filament, 1000 cm³ (61 in³)
• 2 x CFF Quick-change nozzle
• 2 x FFF Quick-change nozzle

The Developer Kit includes:

• Mark One 3D Printer. Earliest ship date*.
• MarkForged software. Premium software support.
• Kevlar® filament, 300 cm³ (18.3 in³)
• Carbon fiber filament, 200 cm³ (12.2 in³)
• Fiberglass filament, 300 cm³ (18.3 in³)
• Nylon filament, 2000 cm³ (122 in³)
• PLA filament, 2000 cm³ (122 in³)
• 5 x CFF Quick-change nozzle
• 5 x FFF Quick-change nozzle
• 2 additional print beds

More details at: http://markforged.com/#pre-order

[bringho]

From the example on their home page I realize there is be a number of parts that may benefit from being produced this way.

It's however NOT a replacement for most composite parts made "the old way" with layers upon layers or with braided composite structures.

The user rm2014 made an interesting comment about inserting fibre into filament in the RepRap Forum five weeks ago: http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,302667

[greatestalive]

I think this has a chance to really revolutionize 3D Printing. It may not be quite as strong as traditional carbon fiber (it may though). However it allows you to make a lot more "things" than just using plastic.

[krauerking]

im just wondering if the whole printer is needed, because unless they actually rotate the bed to get the weaved print then it should just be possible to upgrade any current printer to be able to print carbon fiber.
im just thinking they should sell the extruder separately if its possible.

[fabhappy]

I'd order one if people out there were willing to purchase parts printed on it! I was thinking that quadcopter and RC car frames would be a pretty good initial application for hobbyists. I realize there are way cooler things like prosthetics getting designed for printing on the Mark One, but lots of simple products could benefit from the strength to weight ratio that the CF provides.

[awerby]

It's hard to see how this strength would be other than uni-directional, given the way FDM printers work. I suppose a flat plate could be printed with layers going in opposite directions, but as soon as the part profile deviated from the flat, there would be no option but to follow the contour of the wall being built. This would certainly be strong in the lengthwise direction, but it would still suffer from the cross-wise weakness that characterizes all the objects made this way - the tendency of the layers to delaminate is their inborn curse. I like the idea mentioned above, of having the build plate swivel, so that deposition could happen across vertically-stacked layer lines, but that would require a lot more mechanical sophistication, and it seems that clearance would be a problem given the configuration of most extruders, not to mention this machine's special extruders, which, it would seem, need some kind of cutter for that continuous filament.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com