Phillips Corp: Everything You Need to Know About Carbon Fiber 3D Printing

By Editorial On Dec 3, 2021

The use of carbon fiber has become increasingly popular across many industries in recent years. When carbon fiber is mixed with other materials, it forms a composite material called carbon fiber reinforced material. This composite material comes in handy for 3D printing machine manufacturers in India. Let’s tell you why.

Stiffness

Carbon fiber has industrial-level stiffness. They can retain their shape under high stress. They can also maintain their structural integrity.

Strength and Light Weight

The properties of carbon fiber are pretty similar to that of steel, while the weight is almost as light as plastic. Hence, it has a low density with a high strength-to-weight ratio.

Resistance

The carbon fiber can withstand high temperatures as compared to several other polymers. It also has high resistance to grease, corrosion, and chemicals.

Other Benefits

A few more benefits of carbon fiber are:

It has outstanding dimensional stability.
It makes a good choice for both functional prototypes and end-use parts.
It has excellent X-ray permeability.
It has high electric conductivity.

1. Carbon Fiber Filament

There are short carbon fibers that comprise segments of less than 1mm in length. These carbon fibers are mixed with a base material called thermoplastic. The carbon fiber filament uses this mix which fits the requirements of 3D printing.

Some of the popular composites of carbon fiber are:

Nylon carbon fiber
ABS carbon fiber
PETG carbon fiber

It is recommended that manufacturers use a hardened steel nozzle in 3D printing to avoid fibers clogging. It is also advisable to maintain the threshold of fibers to maintain the surface finish.

2. Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforcement

Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforcement is a technique that increases the strength of carbon fiber filament. The result is so good that carbon fiber filament can be a better alternative to aluminum. In fact, it can replace aluminum at 50% of weight without losing its original strength.

Since carbon fiber also reduces cost and is cheaper than metal, 3D printing machine manufacturers in India prefer it for their applications.

Use Applications of Carbon Fibre 3D Printing

You can use carbon fiber 3D printing technology across aerospace, defense, race cars, professional cycling, automotive, healthcare, and other industries.

Welding fixture
Bending die
End-of-arm tooling
Alignment tool
Patient-specific implants
Medical instruments
Injection molding
Die casting inserts
Propellers
Bike frames
Airplane wings

Manufacturing Technology for Carbon Fiber 3D Printing

You need a general 3D printer with specialized parts for carbon fiber printing. However, these extra parts could be costly, thereby reducing the overall benefits. Moreover, it requires a specific set of precautions in safety and handling. You need to pay considerable attention to the entire process and every parameter of the technology.

Hence, if you are looking for metal 3d printing in India to produce high-quality products, you should look for Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology. AM is a revolutionary and holistic approach to creating robust, lightweight, and innovative carbon fiber products. No matter how complex the 3D printing design is, AM can excel at it.

This content was originally published on the Phillips Corp website.