3D Printed Carbon Fibre

Carbon Fibre – Ultra-Strong, Lightweight, and Built for Serious Performance

Overview

Carbon fibre is one of those materials people hear about and immediately think “high performance.” And they’d be right. Whether it's chopped carbon used in reinforced filaments, or continuous carbon fibre in specialist parts, it’s all about max strength with minimal weight.

Now, in 3D printing, we’re usually dealing with carbon-fibre-infused thermoplastics like Nylon-CF, PLA-CF or PETG-CF — but the reason they work so well is that carbon does what no other filler does. It stiffens, strengthens, and stabilises. Less flex, more consistency, and better performance in demanding conditions.

When a customer comes in asking for high-rigidity, low-weight parts — this is the path we point them toward.

Key Technical Benefits (Applied to Carbon-Reinforced Parts)

• Stiffness: 4–6x more rigid than base material

• Tensile strength: Up to 110 MPa depending on matrix

• Heat resistance: Often improves with reinforcement

• Weight: Significantly reduced vs metal alternatives

• Warping: Minimised thanks to added stability

• Surface finish: Matte, with a textured carbon look

• Fatigue resistance: Excellent — handles repeated stress well

You’re not just printing a plastic part — you’re printing something that acts like a proper engineering component.

Why Engineers Choose Carbon Fibre

Carbon fibre isn’t about cosmetic upgrades — it’s about parts that hold their own in real‑world conditions. Engineers use it when:

• The part needs to stay rigid under force

• You want to reduce weight without losing strength

• Dimensional accuracy matters under temperature change

• You’re replacing metal brackets or tooling parts

• You need performance — not just plastic

This is the material we use when “good enough” isn’t good enough.

Where We Use Carbon Fibre Reinforced Prints

We’ve used carbon-fibre filled materials for:

• Drone mounts and aerospace components

• Lightweight brackets and frames

• High-stress mechanical arms or levers

• Jigs and fixtures that see daily use

• Robotics and automation parts with moving loads

• Custom performance parts in motorsport and cycling

If the customer says, “Can you make this lighter, but just as strong?” — carbon fibre is the answer.

Things to Watch Out For

Here’s what we always tell customers:

• Carbon fibre is brittle under sudden impact — don’t expect it to flex

• It’s abrasive as hell — we only run it on hardened nozzles

• Print settings matter — strength depends on how the part is oriented

• Surface finish looks high-end, but doesn’t always polish clean

So it’s not for everything — but when it’s right, it’s hard to beat.

Why Buyers Like Carbon Fibre-Infused Parts

If you're sourcing parts that:

• Need to replace machined aluminium

• Have to be strong and lightweight

• Require high visual and mechanical performance

• Need fast turnaround without tooling

Then carbon-reinforced 3D printing gives you a serious edge. It shortens your lead time, cuts your costs, and still delivers the performance you’d expect from metal or composite layups.

Why We Use It at Mitchell & Son

We had a customer building a lightweight robotic arm. He tried PETG, tried Nylon — parts were sagging under their own weight. I said, “Let’s run it in carbon-fibre Nylon. It'll be stiff, light, and you won’t have to reprint in six months.” He didn’t just like the result — he came back for six more arms.

That’s what we do — we choose materials that solve the real-world problem, not just sound good on paper.