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New 3D Printer Can Print With Carbon Fiber
cold fjord sends this news from Popular Mechanics:
"[M]aking custom racecar parts out of carbon fiber is daunting. The only real method available is CNC machining, an expensive and difficult process that requires laying pieces by hand. To improve the process, [Gregory Mark] looked to 3D printing. But nothing on the market could print the material, and no available materials could print pieces strong enough for his purposes. So Mark devised his own solution: the MarkForged Mark One, the world's first carbon fiber 3D printer. Mark debuted his Boston area-based startup MarkForged at SolidWorks World 2014 in San Diego with a working prototype. The Mark One can print in carbon fiber, fiberglass, nylon and PLA (a thermoplastic). ... The main advantage of the Mark One: It can print parts 20 times stiffer and five times stronger than ABS, according to the company. It even has a higher strength-to-weight ratio than CNC-machined aluminum. ... Mark says that he imagines this machine is for anybody who wants to print in a material as strong as aluminum. Beyond racecars, it could be useful to industries like prosthetics."
This is the first materials advance I've seen in ages, bar superficial things like the ability to make ridiculously expensive full-colour prototypes of things that need moulding to make en masse.
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
The first two sentences are chock-full of retardation.
It isn't going to have the strength of carbon fibre done properly so its useless for the types of applications where that strength matters and it isn't going to have the distinctive CF look so its useless for aesthetic applications.
I think someone doesn't know what they are talking about. I don't know if you can CNC machine carbon fibre - maybe you could make a carbon fibre reinforced solid block and CNC machine that - but most carbon fibre parts are made by that expensive and difficult hand-made process of laying sheets of woven fibres and epoxying them into place.
what about GUNS can this thing make GUNS i thought 3d printers made GUNS?
Seriously though, "3d printing" is like "the cloud" - you can just label any new tech CLOUD / 3D PRINTER and every dork/investor gets a stiffy.
Jon Smith selling the SmithWidget and SmithCo is more "ads that matter". Give me the paper that illustrates the breakthrough, not the guy who's trying to make money.
"The only real method available is CNC machining, an expensive and difficult process that requires laying pieces by hand."
CNC means Computer Numerical Controlled, which isn't remotely similar to laying out sheets of resin-bonded carbon fiber by hand. Or are they forming blocks of fiber made out of a lot of bonded sheets, and then CNC-milling them into shapes? That seems like a pointless waste. Very confusing sentence, there.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
Any idea what the asking price for this thing would be?
Oh now come ON, how the fuck does anyone with even a passing knowledge of CF production get the summary so fuckign incredibly wrong? CNC would be to create the MOLD. You dont bloody well layer CF by a goddamn CNC and most of the CF for racecars is layered over the mold by hand.
Now the idea of 3D printing CF isnt a bad idea - the secret to CF strength is getting the strands in the right direction and the resins used / curing time. I can see how this could work and it is somethign to check out. But holy fuck editors, get the goddamn summary right!
Vapor-hardware is a thing. And you're lookin' at it.
The general Slashdot audience has many "tech-blindspots" and advanced composites is definately one of them.
"Pre-order" has become code for, "Welcome to town, Rube!"
Just you fucking wait.
We're half way to printing a Gallardo.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I need to know these things...for scientific purposes..
Beyond racecars, it could be useful to industries like prosthetics
Carbon-fiber bicycle frames are very labor-intensive to manufacture which is a major reason why they're so expensive. This technology could bring the price down to the cost of an aluminum frame, or maybe even lower.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Carbon fibre 3d printer + printable firearms = victory
Pre-packaged unprinted mai order firearms, plug into the point and push the big green with the label "Begin Revolution".
Obama is a 3-D printer junky at the WH.
He orders all the news brands, ordering the Treasury Department to pay up and give a boost to Amazon.com.
He last night tried a new 3-D printer to print his penis at 10x.
He is happy as a clam.
With his new 3-D printed 10x penis he can butt-fuck himself and masturbate while watching a big mirror beside a poster or Richard M. Nixon in the Situation Room beneath the White House.
Ha ha
Every time a new 3D printer is announced, the first thing I check on the specifications list is the bed size. This one is bigger than most, but still too small. It can print items 12"x6"x6"....perhaps enough for visual accessories like center console trim, mirrors, and hood vents, but you can't do door panels, or major body parts like the bumper.....let alone a carbon monocoque chassis. So tone down the delusions of printing a Lamborghini on your desktop for now. I can think of some non-automotive uses though: casings for electronics, and custom firearms.
Birth certificates That should cause a big enough shit storm.
I suspect that another fairly straightforward idea (automating the laying of carbon fiber in a 3D printer), and something every 3D printer would have done within a few years anyway, will be locked up in patent hell for 20 years. MarkForge itself will likely be bought by a big player like Stratasys, who will then ship $500k printers to the auto manufacturers.
I suspect certain aircraft parts could be printed this way. You could print boats with this too. Expensive but accurate and any dimension you want.
"It can print parts 20 times stiffer and five times stronger..."
Butthead: He said "stiff", uh heh heh heh!
Beavis: Yeah! Carbon fiber gives me a stiffy, too!
I was expecting something large enough to print a seat, fender, or wing. My company has a carbon fiber fab division, this could be interesting, but we would need a print volume of at least 4' x 4'x 3'
Can imagine the wailing and nashing of all the 'concerned' mothers about a printer that can print a gun that can shoot more than once :-(
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
There's still a way.
Use the thing to print parts of a mould. Assemble mould. Place in swimming pool. Cover mould in aluminium sheet. Put long runs of shot cord in pool. Ignite shot cord - BOOM! Explosive formed parts!
Stop laughing - someone actually made a boat hull in a similar way with a plywood mould a few decades ago.
My point is that people shouldn't limit themselves to one process and this stuff could be very useful in a chain. Patternmaking for metal casting can be difficult by hand and not so much with 3D printing. If the pattern gets used a lot you may want it to be made of out something durable like carbon fibre reinforced plastic.
bar superficial things like the ability to make ridiculously expensive full-colour prototypes of things that need moulding to make en masse.
Superficial? Hardly. Tooling is incredibly expensive for molded plastic products and 3D printers make producing small quantities of plastic parts MUCH cheaper in many cases. If you think this is unimportant or trivial then you are wrong. This is a Very Big Deal.
My new Gundam Style body suite or cyborg army exoskeletons. Bring it on Cyborgz.
Ah, I think I get what you're trying to explain to me, you're saying that injection moulding and other trad methods can be beat on price, by current printers, for niche (short-run) products? Is this the case?
Correct. There are very large tooling costs that have to be amortized into the piece price for traditional methods. The cost of the plastic itself is generally only a concern at high volumes because it is very low compared with the cost of tooling at low volumes. Tooling and overhead are fixed costs (same price whether you produce 1 or 1 million) whereas plastic and direct labor are variable costs (same price per unit regardless of number produced). Piece price = Variable Costs + (Fixed Costs / Number of units produced) Since tooling for injection molding can easily be tens of thousands of dollars for each product, you need to produce a very large quantity to make the fixed costs per unit low. Get the unit volume high enough and the fixed costs become a pretty good approximation of zero.
Carbon fiber dicks. Soon we will have carbon fiber fucking dicks due to this technology. Please use it to make guns instead. Thank You!