The world's first carbon fiber 3D printer

Most 3D printers on the market produce objects made of extruded plastic — cool, but often not rock-and-roll enough to a substitute for machined metal. Designed to print stuff with an extremely high strength-to-weight ratio, the Mark Forged Mark One 3D printer puts all those plastic-making robots to shame with a product purported to be stronger than 6061-T6 aluminum.

The Mark One can print in fiberglass and carbon fiber via its new printing process they call Composite Filament Fabrication, as well as nylon and biodegradable PLA. For the fibrous materials, each part printed is made up with fibers embedded in thermoplastic that hardens immediately without curing or nasty chemicals.

Since you can control the direction, type, and volume of these fibers, you can customize strength and stiffness, producing printed objects up to 20 times stiffer and five times stronger than similar printed ABS plastic parts. In the hands of hobbyists, consumers, and startups, this could be a game changer.

Here's what we want to see printed:

• Carbon fiber guitars because METAL
• Fine china carbon fiber to class up the joint
• Carbon fiber bikes with your name embossed to protect from thieves
Yourself, in carbon fiber
• Other 3D printers?

So pre-order a Mark One and get to work.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is the Gear editor for Supercompressor. A Vermont native, he loves biking, running, rock and roll, and words. He never believed a word Lance said. Hear him testify on Twitter @ewolffmann.