World's first carbon fibre 3D printer on sale next month An American firm which manufactures components for race cars has spun-out a startup to bring the world's first carbon fibre 3D printer to market. The $5,000 (£3,000) Mark One printer is just 22 inches by 13 inches and can easily sit on most desktops. It uses a spool of carbon fibre to create objects that are up to five times stronger than parts made by 3D printers in plastic. Mark Forged, founded by Gregory Mark who also co-owns carbon fibre manufacturer Aeromotions, will start taking pre-orders next month and hopes to deliver the first printers to customers in the second half of the year. The company claims that it can print objects that are 20 times stiffer and five times stronger than existing plastic printing technologies, and that finished products have a higher strength-to-weight ratio than machined aluminium. The machine is also versatile enough to be able to print in fibreglass, nylon and plastic. Mark told Popular Mechanics: "We took the idea of 3D printing, that process of laying things down strand by strand, and we used it as a manufacturing process to make composite parts. We say it's like regular 3D printers do the form. We do form and function. He said that one important application for the device would be printing prosthetic limbs for patients. There are a bunch of people who are interested in the prosthetics side. There's a whole fit component. It has to fit on your body. That's something that's more art than science, you want to print out a whole bunch of different versions and test them out. But then when you have your final version, you want to make exactly that, but really strong. [With] this printer" once you want to make it strong, you print it in composites."