Composite 3D Printer

This is a semester-long school project (the ‘capstone’/thesis class). I lead a team of 4 mechanical engineering students in the development of a 3D printer that can print normal thermoplastics and an epoxy-fiber mixture. The project was intended as a tech demonstrator to show the potential of printing with chopped-fiber-epoxy mixtures; they have the potential to greatly increase the strength to weight of 3D printed parts at a relatively low cost, and entirely automated.

For this project, we received a 2nd place award, out of about 20 casptone teams.

My team collaborated with an additive manufacturing lab for this project. The lab gave us the idea of a thermoplastic + thermoset printer (epoxy) (these are uncommon but certainly exist) and I came up with the idea of adding in chopped fiber (novel as far as I can find).

I did the vast majority of the design work for this project, including most CAD, circuit design, code, etc. I also made the poster at the top of the page on my own.