You know Desktop Metal for its two revolutionary technologies: the Studio System and the Production System.
Last month they did it again with the introduction of Fiber™, a new 3D printing platform that brings industrial-grade continuous fiber composites to the desktop.
This system essentially offers users exceptional part quality and a wide range of engineering-grade materials—all on a user-friendly, desktop printer.
Using the same materials found in Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) applications, Fiber uses industry-proven composites, including fiber-reinforced PEEK and PEKK. You simply press print to produce parts twice as strong as steel and half as light as aluminum.
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Features include:
- Strong parts — Fiber combines the exceptional performance of continuous fiber with the ease of FFF printing to produce high-performance parts that are stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum, and can operate continuously in the toughest environments up to 250 ºC.
- Wide Range of Materials — Fiber prints with two printheads—one dedicated to continuous fiber tape; one dedicated to chopped fiber-reinforced filament. Designed for versatility, the printer supports a wide range of fiber-reinforced composites to enable a broad set of applications from consumer electronics to automotive.
- Accessible — With a wide range of materials, easy-to-use platform, and affordable subscription tiers, Fiber offers high-quality composite printing at a price point every engineer and designer can access.
So how does the system work?
Fiber is the world’s first desktop 3D printer to fabricate high resolution parts with industrial grade continuous fiber composite tape materials used in AFP processes. Based on a new process called Micro AFP (μAFP), users can now print parts with a superior level of strength and stiffness and in a broad range of materials that traditionally required million dollar AFP systems.
During the μAFP process, one Fiber printhead deposits a continuous fiber tape along critical load paths to build dense reinforced sections while a second printhead extrudes chopped fiber filament to build a high-resolution exterior shell. The materials used to make the resulting parts are two times stronger than steel at one-fifth the weight (up to 2,500 MPa tensile strength and <1.5 g/cc).
Fiber is currently only available for purchase on a subscription basis. Contact us to learn more about pricing and subscription terms.
