Computational Craft: Construction of Carbon-fiber Composites

by Tiffany Cheng (MDes ’16)

How can new technologies enable carbon fiber to be pushed to its threshold?

Today, carbon fiber remains an exotic material. Due to its material infancy, carbon fiber’s primary barrier to entry in the architecture/construction market is its cost. But carbon fiber (now mirroring steel’s growing pains before its mass-production during the 19th century) has the ability to be produced in a cheap and sustainable way. In actuality, labor and tooling account for the largest chunk of manufacturing costs after the precursor. This project aims to automate the process of braiding carbon fiber with mass-customization in mind.

Project website: www.micromacro.nu/machine