Filament extruder with reinforcement fiber nylon, fiberglass, carbon fiber

[morebread @morebread]

As the title don’t think there is much more to say obviously there are a few problems with the idea as in do you embed the reinforcement in the filament or do you have a dual feed head that extrudes the filament and adds the reinforcement from a second spool? and how do you stop start/cut the fiber while printing.

[BHudson @bhudson]

There are two versions currently - one ABS with chopped fiber carbon and the second is a continuous fiber system. The latter includes a second nozzle for ABS so that you don’t build the entire part from carbon fiber filament which would be expensive. For the Robox, the chopped-fiber filled ABS is an option. The resulting material is stiff and brittle, as with most fiber-filled plastics.
The maker of the continuous fiber machine didn’t release much information that I was able to find on how they do it. http://markforged.com/ It looks like they have a special carbon fiber spool and a second roll of ABS or PLA for the fill, but I am only going off the video.

[morebread @morebread]

Ha just seen that printer on Gizmag. I’ve been thinking about this for a while I was hoping to get a few spare print heads and try to Frankenstein something together on the Robox but now that its not shipping I might have to look elsewere for a donor already have a backlog of jobs waiting for a printer.

If its going to work it will have to be dispensed from a separate “printhead”and it will have to have a cutting function so that you can stop and start placement continuously during a print job if that makes any sense I think that there is a need for a few more channels on the controller card for a sissors function there are so many possibilities.

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