Meet the strongest Marvin in the world!
Recently received the Mark one composites FDM 3D Printer.
As we all know, the advantage of this printer is that it gives us the ability to make strong lightweight functional parts by combining composites (carbon fiber, kevlar, fiberglass) and nylon. In my case, I’ll be making a few car parts along with what people from the 3d hubs community need from it (strong prosthetics, tooling, insoles, etc)
Anyhow, The first test print was “Marvin” since it’s a small part that requires some support material. Simply, the perfect choice for a first print.
Nylon is a challenging material to print because of its inconsistency. However, Markforged nylon is not the case. This particular material prints like PLA or any other easy to print material.
Factors contributing to print quality are the integrity of the machine(super precise rigid profile rails, solid frame), slicing software, unique g-code, material print-ability.
There are many similarities as far as plastic printing, you still need to add glue every time before printing, both materials could jam overtime, support removal is a bit challenging in small cavities, nylon warps,etc.
I’ll be posting a Youtube video on the machine soon, covering fiber slicing and 3dprinting. Here are a few details:
- Fiber has limitations:
- Fiber can only take certain angles.
- Fiber must be laid down on top of a nylon layer with 100% infill.
- The minimum fiber feature area is about 1" square.
in other words, Part must be designed based on this limitations and fdm limitations as well.
Printer comes with a sealed drybox in order to keep the nylon as consistent as possible. Notice it comes with a WIFI Antenna. Usb printing is possible but software is online (Google chrome cloud based only).
A few shots on the slicing software showing the internal view of the part. I’ve added a few fiber layer just to become familiar with the software & demonstration purposes.
Software takes a little long to slice and process the information but the amazing graphics and features make up for the long wait.
Hope this was an insightful topic, and can’t wait to see what other Mark one owners and customers are doing with this amazing tool.
Happy printing!
