Braxton Kyle Bensel

G#: 801101065

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Assignment 5A: Engineering Advancement


My chosen advancement: Carbon Fiber Printing

And other unique material printers



Background Information


Carbon Fiber is a general term used to refer to long strains of carbon atoms that are bonded together. These long chains can be woven into sheets, cables, or bound in epoxy to create an incredibly strong composite material. Carbon Fiber is, in my eyes, a newer Titanium (in that since it's introduction, it's seeing widespread use due to being a stronger and lighter alternative to aluminum and steel (although not cheaper)). Typically, carbon fiber is most often utilized in it's composite form, creating sheets of material that provide incredible structural strength at a fraction of the weight of aluminum. Naturally, engineers began to wonder if they could take this material and introduce it into a more free-flowing form of manufacturing such as 3D printing.
The first company to come out with a commercial Carbon Fiber printer was Markforged, who released the Mark One in 2014. This printer was revolutionary, and brought incredible strength to created parts paired with the versatility of 3D printing. Their Mark One printer was capable of continuous-strand carbon fiber printing- which was incredibly unique. Most forms of printing that utilize carbon fiber are what is referred to as chopped carbon fiber filament, which is broken down carbon fiber fragments and nylon mixed together into a strand. Continuous-fiber carbon strands are solely carbon fiber and are much stronger and more resilient. Carbon Fiber Strands Taken from Markforged
The above image shows the difference between the chopped and continuous carbon fiber strands. The reduced size gives both more precision and stronger bonds, as the material is solely carbon fiber increasing strength greatly.

Let's take a closer look at carbon fiber 3D printing. Firstly, why is it even useful compared to other methods such as just manufacturing the plates I need from carbon fiber plates, which can be easily sourced? The biggest reason is the versatility that 3D printing provides. 3D printing enables users to create parts that are much less linear (that is, the parts can be built upwards and have unique edge geometries as opposed to the restriction of only being able to modify the edges of a sheet of carbon fiber. While I could just buy a sheet of carbon fiber material and machine it to the right dimensions, I would lose a lot of the creativity that 3D printing gives me, and I wouldn't even be able to create certain parts at all. I could also just use standard 3D printing processes, but that would mean that I would lose some of the strength of the part that may be very critical for the application depending on the forces being applied.

Integration into my project

The use of carbon fiber 3d printers could be very beneficial towards my project. I could utilize this unique technology in the production of the carriage body of my design. This will give me a very sturdy body and will allow me to create the unique splines and curves that some of the potential body configurations have. This would come in at the component stage of my design, as it would be one of the potential ways of manufacturing the cart bodies.
At a first glance, it is clear that this advancement promises the strongest material with the best versatility, but there are certainly limitations and challenges. Firstly, the carbon fiber 3D printing process is incredibly expensive. The machines alone are thousands of dollars, and to get someone else to print them would likely cost a pretty penny. Additionally, the process is very thorough, as the part has to be printed, then washed, then treated. This long process means that it will likely take a bit longer than traditional 3D printing and will add in additional processing costs which makes it more and more undesirable.
As I began to look into the carbon fiber printing process, I am starting to wonder if the tradeoffs are worth the potential increased cost. While the carbon fiber can perform similarly to aluminum, I'm not sure if I even need the strength of aluminum for my parts anyways. The system itself is not incredibly load bearing and may only need to support a few pounds of weight, meaning that I could get away with PLA or another 3D printing material that is cents per gram rather than potentially hundreds of dollars for a part. Overall, if I want to integrate this new advancement into my project, I need to take a very close look at whether or not the tradeoff is worth it. Is the potential increase in cost and difficulty in accessing machinery worth the potential increase in structural strength? I am currently of the opinion that it isn't, but that's to be determined in Assignment 5.


My sources


1) Markforged : https://markforged.com/about/company
2) DragonPlate : https://dragonplate.com/what-is-carbon-fiber
3) Innovative Composite Engineering : https://www.innovativecomposite.com/what-is-carbon-fiber/