Earlier this year during February colorFabb launched their new carbon fibre 3D printing XT-CF20 filament, that is a copolyester based carbon fiber composite material that is based on the unique Amphora 3D polymer from Eastman Chemical.
The new colorFabb XT-CF20 carbon fibre filament is constructed with no less than 20 percent specially sourced carbon fibres suitable for 3D Printing and has been used to create a 3D printed bike to demonstrate the materials strength and versatility.
Stephan Schurmann has been developing the 3D printing right over the last five months and used an Ultimaker Original Plus 3D printer equipped with a 0.8 Nozzle to print the parts required to construct the bike. Not every component of the bike is 3D printing and a few will need to be purchased from a bike shop to finish the project. Stephan explains more :
Printing the entire bike frame would take too much time and material, so we decided to print the lugs and connect tubes to them. The result is an amazingly strong bike frame at an acceptable weight. The big benefit of making your own bike is that the sizes of the bike can be customized manually before 3D printing to preserve best ergonomics. Various types of tubing can be used including carbon, titanium, aluminum or bamboo.
3D printing allows a huge freedom of forms and allows unique features in the design. This has been used to implement a new kind of adhesive distribution system. With this technique one can assemble the bike and add an polyurethane adhesive which distributes itself to the right places without getting your hands dirty. The strength of the bike frame has been tested with a FEM analysis and, of course in real life use.
For more information on the new colorFabb XT-CF20 carbon fibre filament jump over to the official website for details via the link below.