'Real' Woven Carbon Fiber Mat

thingiverse

Proto Pasta Carbon is truly impressive, producing smooth prints with ease. However, these prints lack the visual appearance and strength of real carbon fiber. To overcome this, a woven carbon fiber mat has been designed using Proto Pasta Carbon as the primary material. This design allows for versatility, enabling users to create custom shapes by cutting out patterns or layers of different thicknesses. Thermal molding is an efficient method for shaping the mats into desired forms. A heat gun and template combination may yield even better results. Users can also utilize a SketchUp file provided in the attachment to manually "cut" their preferred design. Achieving optimal prints proves challenging due to Proto Pasta's tendency to bridge or break rather than flow and weave as required. Printing at 220°C, using an extrusion multiplier of 1.5/1.6, and applying 0.075mm slice thickness enables smooth printouts with the help of a hot water bath. This unique combination demands a lengthy printing time of about thirty minutes. Crucial parameters include zero retraction, absence of infill, ribbon height equating to slice height (2.5mm and 0.1mm respectively), and carefully tailored scale adjustments according to nozzle diameter. To create perfect prints using Proto Pasta Carbon, precise printer settings are essential. This includes setting a hot water bath for molding the mats, utilizing an extrusion multiplier of 1.5/1.6 at a print temperature of 220°C, zero retraction and infill settings, as well as optimizing the slice thickness (0.075mm). Additionally, nozzle scaling is necessary for various printer setups to guarantee proper fiber placement during printing. With some modifications in slice and nozzle dimensions, one can optimize the prints even further. Printer Details Manufacturer: Printrbot Printer Model: Simple Black