When you talk about the materials you could use to print 3D objects, there are hoards of them. From plastics to metals and ceramics too, there is a huge list of materials, specifically dedicated to the 3D printing technology.

However, while you use a resin 3D printer for any such materials, lots of troubles are bound to occur. For instance, some of them might lack chemical, thermal or mechanical properties, turning your 3D printing jobs a nightmare.

But then, the things took a turnaround when the researchers and 3D printing professionals came to know about carbon fiber-reinforced plastics. Let us know about these plastics in a bit brief:

Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics:

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics are the plastics that are mixed with carbon fibers and this is done to foster the elasticity and strength of the 3D printed parts.

And surprisingly, these composite materials have strength that is comparable to many of the metals, but much, much less weight than them. In addition to this, use of carbon fibers to mix with plastic resins is one of the best strategies to fortify the mechanical properties of 3D printed portions.

Wanhao Duplicator 4S Black Steel Exoframe

Paybacks Of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics:

Currently, most of the 3D printed objects are in plastics, and if you use a prusa 3D printer for your domestic uses, you might be well acquainted with the difficulties that occur.

But with filaments of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, you could obtain advantages such as:

· High chemical resistance

· Good tensile strength

· Rigidity

· Significant temperature tolerance

· Low thermal expansion

Applications Of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics:

Due to the aforementioned and many other advantages offered by carbon fibers, all these composite plastics have found various industrial applications too. Some of the applications of these 3D printing materials are as follows:

· Design of racing cars and even their construction

· Sports equipment

· Drones

· Daily-use products etc.

Wanhao Duplicator I3 Mini

The Technologies Used:

For 3D printing with the use of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, there are normally two kinds of printing technologies involved. These are as follows:

· Selective Laser Sintering or SLS

· Fused Deposition Modeling or FDM

While the SLS fabricates the 3D objects by building layers of objects using laser sintered powdered materials, FDM uses layer-by-layer extrusion method to eject the heated filament materials.

However, whatever method you employ, carbon fibers have heralded a new era a plastic 3D printing, improving lots of their properties and never contributing to their costs or weight.

So if you are printing 3D objects at home in plastics with your desktop 3D printers, you could also go for carbon fiber-reinforced plastics to experience a better change in the final product you obtain.