Carbon fibre 3D printing, posted UK-wide
Stiff, light, matte engineering parts in PETG-CF and PA-CF carbon-fibre nylon, printed on enclosed machines with hardened steel nozzles. Upload your file and see a live price in seconds; carbon fibre orders start at £40.
PETG-CF for stiffness, PA-CF for strength
Chopped carbon fibre does two things to a plastic: it makes it much stiffer, and it kills the shiny 3D-printed look. Which base plastic you pick decides everything else.
PETG-CF
Everything you order PETG for, roughly twice as stiff, with a matte finish that hides layer lines.
- About double the stiffness of plain PETG
- Smooth matte surface, looks professional off the bed
- Better dimensional stability in warm spots
- Modest price step: +60% on the per-gram rate
- Dark colours only: black, grey, dark green, brick red, indigo, violet
- Order-in, adds about one working day
PA-CF (carbon-fibre nylon)
The top of our range: nylon toughness, carbon stiffness, and the best heat tolerance we offer.
- Around 90 MPa tensile, the strongest material we run
- Working temperature to roughly 150°C under light load
- Nylon wear resistance: right for gears and moving parts
- Filament is dried in the machine before printing
- Black only, and our priciest material at +140%
- Order-in, adds about one working day
How carbon fibre compares, honestly
Typical manufacturer datasheet values for printed parts, flat orientation. Real parts vary with geometry and print settings; we quote with margin, not with the brochure.
| Material | Tensile strength | Stiffness (flexural modulus) | Service temp* | Price vs PLA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PETG | ~50 MPa | ~1.9 GPa | ~70°C | +20% |
| PETG-CF | ~52 MPa | ~3.8 GPa | ~75°C | +60% |
| PC (polycarbonate) | ~60 MPa | ~2.3 GPa | ~110°C | +90% |
| Nylon (PA) | ~65 MPa | ~2.1 GPa | ~100°C | +110% |
| PA-CF | ~90 MPa | ~4.2 GPa | ~150°C | +140% |
| Aluminium 6061, for scale | ~310 MPa | ~69 GPa | n/a | machining costs |
*Approximate continuous service temperature under light load. We include the aluminium row because we would rather lose a quote than oversell a material: printed carbon fibre replaces metal in light and moderate duty, not in highly loaded structural work. Carbon fibre materials are ordered in per job, add about one working day to dispatch, and carry a £40 minimum order that covers the fresh reel.
Where carbon fibre earns its price
If the part just sits there, PETG is cheaper and fine. Carbon fibre earns its keep when weight, stiffness or heat are on the line.
Drone & RC parts
Frames, arms, camera mounts and crash-replaceable parts where stiffness-to-weight is the whole game. PA-CF for arms and load paths, PETG-CF for the rest.
Gears & moving parts
Nylon has always been the printed-gear material; PA-CF adds the stiffness that keeps teeth meshing under load. Bushes, cams, sprockets and hinges follow the same logic.
Brackets & mounts
Sensor brackets, motor mounts, antenna masts, camera rigs. Parts that used to be folded aluminium print lighter, with the strength put exactly where the load goes.
Jigs, fixtures & tooling
Workshop tooling that gets clamped, knocked and used daily. The matte CF surface also shrugs off the scuffs that make glossy plastic tooling look tired in a week.
Automotive clips & trim
Interior brackets, cable guides and light-duty under-bonnet parts in PA-CF where plain PLA or PETG would soften. Tell us where it lives and we will be straight about whether it survives there.
Functional prototypes
When the prototype has to take the real load, print it in the real class of material. A PA-CF prototype tells you things a PLA one cannot.
Upload today, dispatched about two working days later
1. Price it now
Upload your STL, STEP or 3MF to the instant quote tool and switch to PETG-CF or PA-CF to see the live price. Nothing is committed until you order.
2. We order the reel in
Carbon fibre filament is ordered fresh per job and dried in the machine before printing, which is most of why nylon parts from a proper service beat home-printed ones. This adds about one working day.
3. Printed, checked, posted
Printed on enclosed machines with hardened steel nozzles, checked over the bench, and posted tracked anywhere in the UK.
Carbon fibre, answered
Is carbon fibre 3D printing as strong as metal?
No, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. A PA-CF part reaches around 90 MPa tensile with excellent stiffness for its weight, which genuinely replaces aluminium in brackets, mounts, jigs and drone parts under light to moderate load. Sustained heavy load, high heat and high bolt torque stay metal, and we will tell you which side of the line your part falls on.
What is the difference between PETG-CF and PA-CF?
PETG-CF is our everyday functional plastic stiffened with chopped carbon fibre: roughly twice the stiffness, a clean matte finish, modest price step. PA-CF is carbon-fibre nylon: the strongest and most heat tolerant material we print, for gears, load-bearing brackets and parts near heat. If you are unsure, describe the job and we will pick.
What colours does it come in?
PA-CF comes in black only, that is the material, not us being difficult. PETG-CF comes in black plus a small range of dark colours: grey, dark green, brick red, indigo and violet. The quote tool only offers colours we can genuinely source.
Why the £40 minimum order?
Carbon fibre filament costs three to four times what PLA does, and we buy a fresh reel in for your job, which also adds about one working day to dispatch. The minimum covers the reel. There is no setup fee on top, and a batch of parts can share one minimum.
Do the fibres make the surface rough?
The opposite. Chopped-fibre filaments print with a smooth matte surface that hides layer lines better than any glossy plastic. It is why CF parts look as professional as they perform.
Can you print carbon fibre on a budget printer at home?
Not for long: the fibres chew through brass nozzles, and nylon that has not been properly dried prints foamy and weak. Our machines run hardened steel nozzles and dry the filament in the machine as it prints, which is exactly the boring infrastructure that makes these materials behave.
Price your part in carbon fibre now
Upload a file and switch between PETG-CF and PA-CF to see the live price, or describe the job and we will recommend a material honestly, the same working day.