Any feedback about Carbon Fiber Plate ?
Is it worth compared a glass or borosilicate glass ?
http://reprapsource.com/en/show/6832
I suspect the thermal characteristics would be worse than even glass.
I could make some of those at work!
Its all about the epoxy. Some start breaking down at about 30C.
Yeah, but what is thermal conductivity like? The carbon might well be good, but the epoxy is probably not great.
We have a 125℃ and 175℃ cure. Not sure what max operating temperature is for them though.
I’ve done some extensive research around the whole carbon fiber topic, however I couldn’t find any material that would stand our temperatures. Even the special high temp non-woven carbon plates warped and decolored over time.
The reason for me wanting to try carbon fiber was that it should have a thermal performance superior to glass, but its shortcoming (and high price) made me switch back to window glass.
Have you looked at the Fibredux carbon fibre?
Thanks for your answers mates.
On reprap forum Slymike mentioned also Carbon Silica Composite, he said he would make a try.
Nobody tested these plates from reprapsource ?
On my side interest in such plate is also winning weight for a bigger heatbed (300 x 300 mm - 12" x 12"), compared to a glass one.
Some thermal conductivity figures (W·m-1·K-1) :
- copper 390
- aluminium 237
- carbon 129
- carbon fiber, I would say average from 2 to 30 depending on composite materiel and direction (http://www.cs.odu.edu/~mln/ltrs-pdfs/NASA-97-tm4787.pdf)
- glass 1.2
@Thomas_Sanladerer Interesting feedback Thomas. Do you have some pictures of your tests ? What was the thickness of the warped carbon plate ?
@Couby_Stark sadly I wasn’t documenting my projects that well back then, so I don’t have any pictures of my trials.
The thickness was a bit over 4mm if I remember correctly. It warped a bit whenever it was heating up, but also permanently deformed, enough to have my prints peel off the bed.
@Thomas_Sanladerer Thanks for these details Thomas :-).