Podcast Ep. #49 – 9T Labs is Producing High-Performance Composite Materials Through 3D Printing

Aerospace Engineering Podcast

Martin Eichenhofer is the CEO & co-founder of 9T Labs, a company that was spun out of ETH Zürich in Switzerland. The company specialises in providing software solutions and manufacturing equipment for producing high-quality and high-performance composite materials using 3D printing.

By marrying the worlds of composite materials and 3D printing, 9T Labs is taking advantage of the superior material properties of composite materials and combining these with the geometric fidelity facilitated by 3D printing. As a result, components that were previously unfeasible to be manufactured using composite materials, either from a technical or cost perspective, are now within the realm of the possible.

What is unique about 9T Labs is that the company combines their hardware for 3D printing composite parts with a bespoke optimisation software in order to maximise a component’s performance, both in terms of structural design and manufacturing quality. Furthermore, it has been historically difficult to print continuous fibre composites at high quality with a low void content. 9T Labs, however, has patented a process that allows printing at a void content of below 1%, which competes with conventionally manufactured composites.

In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering Podcast, Martin and I discuss:

• his background as an engineer and how his PhD research led to 9T Labs
• the challenges and benefits of 3D printing composite materials
• 9T Labs’ unique approach to 3D printing composite materials
• some of the applications the company is currently working on
• and much, much more.

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Selected Links from the Episode

• 9T Labs webpage, LinkedIn
• 9T Labs profile | Composites World
• Video: 3D printing for electric cars
• Helicopter door hinge case study
• ETH Zürich research lab