Additive manufacturing permits almost unlimited freedom of design – a characteristic that allows innovative design methods, especially for lightweight solutions. However, many materials have limitations in high load-bearing applications. One solution is to use carbon fiber composites. Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) offers strength when the load acts preferentially along the fiber direction.

AdditiveCARBON enables hybrid structures by means of a combined and automated manufacturing approach in which the carbon fiber reinforcement directly follows the load paths and the additive base structure serves as support for compressive loading.

Cost reduction through intelligent material pairing
Often when additive manufacturing a larger building volume, production costs and times increase.  In typical composites production, in turn, tooling costs, inefficient material use and waste lead to high overall costs.

AdditiveCARBON is here to eliminate the limitations of both technologies by means of a targeted hybridization: the carbon fiber reinforcement reduces the necessary building volume of the 3D printing part and the additively manufactured base structure makes a separate tool unnecessary for the robot-supported 3D-winding process. A symbiosis, which has a positive impact not least on the cost side.

Application potentials for handling systems, medical technology and aerospace
The approach is particularly interesting where lightweight design requirements are combined with distinct component variability. AdditiveCARBON enables higher productivity, individual prostheses and ultralight aircraft structures. To ensure that the process can also be applied in cost-sensitive areas, CIKONI engineers have also developed a modular system with hybridized injection-molded and metal components, from which larger structures can be quickly configured from modules. The holistic approach has already convinced numerous customers to rethink their view on lightweight design.

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