News - Mark One carbon fibre 3D printer is now available to pre-order

[HEXUS]

The world's first carbon fibre 3D printer will be priced at $4,999.

Read more.

[RT-XD]

WOW! didn't think Carbon fiber would be in all this 3D printing stuff...now I'm excited for when I can get one! XD

[vicar]

Now waiting for the price to drop, or for cheaper versions. Possibilities are endless.

[Pob255]

It sounds so cool. A 3D printer that can print carbon fibre, but it has a serious flaw in that it can only lay their chunky fibres down in two dimensions and their binding material doesn't have the same strength.

You're only just scratching the surface there.
There's a lot more to carbon fibre than using woven sheets, although woven sheets are very important to create 2 directional "Tensile" strength and the way you make strong 3d carbon fibre shape rather than sheets it to wrap overlapping sheets around a mould or better still to weave it into the shape, which is complex and very expensive.

The next major point about carbon fibre is the resin used, in high end parts they use special compression or thermal resins, these have to be compressed or baked or both while they cure to get the maximum density and material "strength" out of it.
This means that you can make two objects that have the same shape, size, carbon fibre structure but by changing the resin used you can alter the "strength", hardness, thermal resistance and weight.

Now lets move onto their lovely little graph and claims.
The graph shows flexural modulus, which is a fancy way of saying a bending stress test.
Now as fine as that is it's far from great as a way to back up their claims of "strength", the stiffness claim is ok because that's what that test shows

I've put "strength" every time in this post, because as a term it's rather nebulas, correctly speaking any material object has 3 strengths in multiple axis, there is no one overall "strength"
And you also have to add in failure dynamics and hardness

The 3 strengths are Compressive (squeezing), Tensile (pulling) and Shear (twisting and bending)
Now how strong any two materials are comparatively depends on the usage demands of the tested material, eg in structural engineering compressive strength is generally used for the comparative "strength" of a material.
One thing to note about carbon fibre is that depending on the weave it has different strengths in any test depending on the direction of a force and generally has relatively weak performance in twisting shear tests.

Could this 3d printed carbon fibre material be useful? yes for the right application, although it cannot replace "normal" carbon fibre in any situation where it's used.
They very cleverly mention lots of places "normal" carbon fibre is used, implying their 3d printed carbon fibre could be used instead but never actually claiming that.

Overall some very slick PR and sales pitch which I'm sure will get them some sales.

[peterb]

Overall some very slick PR and sales pitch which I'm sure will get them some sales.

Exactly. And that's why the demo piece they carry around to show off is a boring old sliver from a 'wing support' rather than a whole part (say said wing support).

They know exactly the weaknesses of the product but they're hoping they can hoodwink enough people into giving it some marketing inches.

Certainly worked here at Hexus. But then it doesn't take much to hoodwink Hexus.

Just re-highlighted the bit you chose to hide - as HEXUS is not above receiving well founded criticism. But if you think criticism is justified, at least be open about it.

Except in this case, HEXUS is only reporting a story, without adding its own comment.

[peterb]

I don't say it as a positive or negative. It is highlighting news items - if you are interested, you can read the source and make up your own mind - as I do - if I see something that interests me.

I AM interested in opinion and comment in the review sections, however, particularly when HEXUS has tested something itself.

But if you feel that strongly, start a thread of your own elsewhere in the forums - and be open, no glory in hiding a criticism by merging it with the background. Bit like a school kid sticking up two fingers and running away.

[herulach]

I've had dealings with a business that is already using 3D printing and CF to great effect, but to print dissolvable forms to do layup onto rather than printing the CF itself. As pob points out, even the direction the mat is laid can have a big impact on the performance of the part.

As to whether hexus covers too many press release articles, I don't see that they're any worse than other comparable sites, elreg, tom's etc. The strength of hexus as a site has always been the quality of the reviews they do do, supplemented by the forum community.

[Jake12321]

Saw one of these the other day, very expensive however I wouldn't mind buying one in a few years time when they are cheaper. Looks very good and shows how far technology has come in the recent years.