Carbon Fiber Nylon. What is it? Think Zip-ties -- polyamide is almost everywhere you look. “Nylons” worn by women and bandits, velcro, zip-ties, ropes, nuts bolts & washers, circuit board hardware, and a ton of places you never knew it was. It’s been around for years!
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Carbon-fiber Nylon in 3D printing uses the same, awesome material -- with chopped carbon fibers embedded throughout. This adds to the rigidity of the material - all the tiny carbon fibers create stiffness, and also make the part slightly lighter. It also increases dimensional accuracy -- because the fibers hold the polymer in place, less shifting and warping occurs at the edges and stress points. Regarding dimensional accuracy -- thanks to the fibers holding the polymer in place, less curling and warping occurs at the edges and stress points within the part. This also makes it much easier to print, especially if you don’t have a heated chamber. This also makes it much easier to print, especially if you don’t have a heated chamber. There are also continuous fiber-filled nylons with even more strength but these require special printers. Suited for structural parts, functional prototypes, and custom end-use production parts. Often we see continuous fiber from Markforged, or their Onyx material, which is a carbon-fiber nylon blend, just like ours -- except, we have data showing the 3DXTech brand is significantly stronger than the Markforged -- not only that but much cheaper -- the only difference is, you’ll have to print it yourself (and it will look just as good).
Most common printers can print it -- Prusa i3’s, higher-end Flashforges, Ultimakers, even Ender 3’s. You basically need a printer that will do 120 on the bed, and 260 on the nozzle. A heated chamber will help a LOT with bigger parts but isn’t required. Next -- it’s super Strong - some blends at 25% carbon fill are literally comparable to aluminum -- they’re calling it black aluminum. The addition of carbon fiber increases the modulus significantly - Blends from Markforged have strength to weight ratios higher than 6061-T6 aluminum, in some cases
And it’s about 24 times stronger and 27 times stiffer than ABS. CF Nylon also has a great matte-black finish, kind of looks metallic from the reflections of carbon, and really hides the layer lines -- meaning you can print faster, with bigger layers, and you will still have a really good-looking part. This means more production, more parts, in less time! Lastly, this stuff works great with no support material, using itself as the support, or using soluble supports like PVA, Aquasys 120, or other materials coming out on the market now.
Anyway, that’s why we love carbon-fiber nylon -- do you? Let us know in the comments what your favorite part about CFNylon is, or if you’ve got any questions!
At Vision Miner, we specialize in Functional 3D printing, especially high-performance plastics like PEEK, ULTEM, PPSU, PPS, CFPA, and more. If you're interested in using functional 3D printing and materials in your business, feel free to reach out, and we can help you make the right choice for your application.
Call 833-774-6863 or email contact@visionminer.com, and we're here to help!
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