3-D Printed Carbon Fibre Parts May Be Closer Than You Think

By Santosh

Would car makers be able to ‘print' out body panels in the future? The answer to that could well be yes, if we are to go by aerospace engineer Greg Mark's latest creation.

The new printer, branded MarkForged Mark One can actually print car parts from continuous carbon fibres. In the past, such printing was restricted since only short fibres could be utilised for 3-D printing that had the disadvantage of limited strength and stiffness. With the Mark One, fully finished parts can now be produced with the same level of strength and quality as those created from ‘high-performance' composites.

3d printed carbon fibre parts now a reality

Greg Mark has a motorsports background: his former company Aeromotions created carbon fibre wings for racing. These parts were created in classic style - laying out the material by hand, which meant big delays between the engineering and manufacturing processes. Also, the extremely high cost of production meant profits were meagre.

Also Read: Your Car Might Soon Be Able To Run On Ammonia

But now, the time taken for manufacturing and a huge reduction in costs mean this technology has huge potential across the automotive industry, including motorsports and passenger car manufacturing.

In the racing world, track data from testing can be gathered and analysed and the required changes to the components of the race car can simply be printed out in a span of four hours, like for example, a new wing for better downforce.

Car companies can see huge savings in costs and time taken to implement a model's mid-cycle facelift, for example, since creating the new components can be printed extremely rapidly now. The customisation industry too, could make widespread use of this technology in the future, since custom parts can be produced easily.

For the time being, the extremely high costs of this 3D carbon fibre printing mean that this technology will take time to be viable for widespread implementation in the industry. But the future has just gotten much closer...

DON'T MISS: VIDEO OF THE DAY

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Article Published On: Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 11:35 [IST]
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