Carbon Fiber 3D printers

[rppearso]

I was just reading an article about carbon fiber 3D printers that are coming out soon. Does anyone know anything about these? Could they be used to build out ribs and other smaller carbon fiber parts to construct a plane. If someone were able to print off all the ribs and other components how hard is it to do a carbon fiber lay up for a fuselage?

[WLIU]

The output of a carbon fiber printer does not have the strength of a well designed layup of fabric and epoxy. And using carbon fiber as "black aluminum" does not save weight or build time. In fact, the result is often heavier. Composite design has turned into a discipline all of its own with a steep learning curve. If there are any short cuts, please let me know. The 600 page text Composite Airframe Structures by Michael Niu is a good place to start, followed by Burt Rutan's book Moldless Composite Sandwich Aircraft Construction.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS