Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team

[Rynocorn]

Originally Posted by stinglikeabee

These guys did it in their shop. ORNL may have come up with something much more robust for industrial applications.

I am a part of the Knoxville based team 1466 and we have worked closely with both 4265, 3824, and others the past few years. The team that has used the Carbon fiber and 3d printed technology has been 3824 and they featured it last year on their ultimate ascent robot. Their team also is one of the leading tenants of the Oak Ridge MDF (materials demonstration facility) facility where they have many many million+ dollar 3D printers and also titanium 3D printers which is kinda the coolest place ever.

The way the carbon fiber plastic parts has been explained to me is that they will print a part off the printer, take a roll of carbon fiber strip, run the carbon fiber through a resin, and then wrap the carbon fiber around a plastic part to reinforce it. That is just the FRC use so I'm not sure if the lab uses it in other ways.

As not being a member of either team, these are just what I believe to be true as a member of another team. Hopefully a member from one of these teams will see this thread and reaffirm what I have said.