Filling your filaments with carbon fiber helps to create stronger parts, useful for a variety of different applications. Our Head of Materials, James Pitts, outlines the benefits of carbon fiber filaments, including our very own PA12 CF and HI-TEMP CF, in the first installment of our Expert Insights series.

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What are Carbon Fiber Filaments?
Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP) bring together the qualities and performance properties of carbon fiber with the polymer material they are reinforcing. Printability and ease of use of a standard thermoplastic like PLA, ABS, or PET gains superior performance properties by including carbon fiber content.

Chopped fibers are mostly used for industrial production and also 3D printing. These carbon fibers come as a "filler" material in thermoplastic materials for injection molding or as carbon fiber filaments to use in 3D printers. They can be processed like any other thermoplastic material. But they have extra requirements which will be explained later on.

FFF (extrusion-based) 3D printing uses chopped carbon fibers. These small fibers are then mixed into a standard thermoplastic as a reinforcing material.

Why do you need Carbon Fiber 3D Printing?
Industrial environments often demand specific mechanical properties and finely tuned precision. Fortunately, by bringing together the capabilities of a high-strength material and the many advantages of additive manufacturing, carbon fiber 3D printing offers exceptional dimensional stability in strong, stiff parts with a fine surface finish and a high heat deflection temperature - ideal for functional, high-performance applications.

With 3D printing moving ever deeper into end-use production, the ability to manufacture both parts and tooling using carbon fiber filaments is increasing in demand.

Whether using these materials in molds, jigs, fixtures, tooling or high-performance race cars, specialty aerospace equipment, or professional cycling equipment, carbon fiber 3D printer filament enables you to create the high-strength parts you need. Of course, as a relatively new offering in the manufacturing industry, carbon fiber 3D printing may have many pros, but it's also worth being aware of the printing requirements before you get started.

Conclusion
When you decide to take on carbon fiber 3D printing, you’re committing to an endeavor that requires significant attention to parameters and specialized equipment and requirements. When those conditions are fulfilled, you can produce best-in-class lightweight, durable, functional parts that can stand up to a variety of industrial uses with all the complexity in design that 3D printing has to offer. Get in touch with a BigRep expert today to learn how CF filaments can help to improve your production capabilities.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:51 Heat Deflection
01:11 Durability
01:32 Surface Quality
01:54 Less Warpage
03:03 Tips & Tricks
04:08 Part Orientation
05:11 BigRep Filaments
06:20 Applications
07:28 More Applications
08:14 Even More Applications
08:39 Learn More

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