Week 3

The design of the coating chamber was designed to allow the carbon fiber line to pass through it where the molten PEI flows from the hopper to coat the fiber.

 Figure 1. bottom of the chamber; carbon fiber is pulled from conical opening into the chamber where it is coated with PEI and pulled through

Figure 2. top of the chamber; slanted opening on top allows PEI to be delivered into the chamber from the hopper attached on top

Figure 3. printed and assembled chamber with fitted hopper

The prototype of the chamber and hopper are printed with ABS filament on a standard 3D printer. Because the material is not conducive to heat, our initial trials will be conducted with fishing line and a semi-flexible material with either a low melting point or a fast drying time.

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