X-Winder: A new additive manufacturing filament winder

We are the startup X-Winder and developed a new additive manufacturing device called the X-Winder, which we believe to be the world's first small scale, affordable, desktop filament winder. As many of you know, filament winding has been around for decades in the aerospace business, but only on a huge scale, with machines so big they take up the entire shop floor. Now, the X-Winder brings this same proven additive manufacturing technology to the desktop and a smaller scale for makers and hobbyists who can now share in the immense cost savings and superior parts manufacturing capability. Think of the X-Winder like a 3D printer - it deposits layer after layer of carbon fiber, fiberglass or other high tensile filament in an epoxy resin matrix on a rotating mandrel to additively manufacture very strong, lightweight parts. BUT, unlike plastic 3D printer parts, X-Winder parts can be used in demanding high performance applications that require great strength and light weight. We are also releasing easy to use software consisting of a G-code generator and a G-code executor (similar to most 3D printer software architectures) which operates the X-Winder. And for software and app developers, we also have an SDK and API we'll be releasing so that more people can write cool apps for the X-Winder.

We have working prototypes and a short video at www.XWinder.com and would like to hear any suggestions or feedback before launching.

We'll be at the NYC Maker Faire on September 21-22, 2013 - so please come by and see our booth, we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. We are also simultaneously launching on Kickstarter that same weekend.

Thanks and looking forward to your feedback.

looks pretty good. Will you be making to software available separate from the kits?

Could you do a custom fuselage shape by wrapping a 3D printed ABS or nylon frame? How well would this scale for something like a kayak?

Hi Nate:

The software will be downloadable as well as shipped on flash drive with each kit. We are thinking about releasing the SDK/API a bit early so that app developers can get a head start if they'd like. We also intend to include an auto update feature for the g-code generator and g-code executor.

Hi Jason:

Filament winding has been used to produce large rocket motor casings and airliner fuselages with diameters in excess of 10 feet and lengths in excess of 100 feet - so scaling is generally not a problem with this manufacturing technology. With regard to a kayak, you might think of using a collapse-able interior frame that could be 3D printed, then wound with carbon fiber filament as the exterior, then after curing the interior frame collapsed and removed, leaving the kayak exterior carbon fiber shell. There are quite a few areas in which 3D printed parts could be wound with carbon fiber filament on the X-Winder and the 3D part later removed leaving a very lightweight, strong carbon fiber shell.

This is looking VERY interesting. Where's you booth at makerfaire? I will definitely be stopping by.

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

Hi akhlut :

We will be in the Start-Up sponsor tent / Maker Pavillion - I think that's in Zone #3 just west of the Rocket park.
Come by and see us on Saturday/Sunday 9/21-22.
I think they've also go a smart phone app we are listed on with GPS at makerfaire.com/app

do you vacuum bag the parts for curing?
I once tried making kayak paddle "bars" by cutting a pvc pipe in half lengthwise, then laying up glass on mylar which then was rolled around an inner tube tied at the ends and put in the pipes. So I had a fiberglass burrito with pipe as the shell, then glass/resin, then mylar, then bike tube.
Taped the thing up and inflated the tube for compression curing.
Worked well actually, and gave a smooth outer surface for hands.
The winding tool of yours gives a textured outer surface. I am wondering how people smooth that out.
Texture might be good for some applications, not for others like model airplane fuselages.

I imagine you wind the filament on the 'tube', epoxy it, then bag and vac it.

Being able to make a custom shaft for my Werner Molokai would be supersweet.

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

Hi jmaeding:

Vacuum curing is not necessary.

Here's a surface finish example from the X-Winder. On the left is the commercial 1" OD carbon fiber cello wrapped tube, in the middle the X-Winder tube with just a heat shrink tape application during the epoxy curing process, and on the right is the same as the middle tube - but a light sanding of the surface followed by a brushed on coat of epoxy which gives it the noticeable glassy finish. The heat shrink tape during the curing process accomplishes two goals, (1) it compresses the wound part and squeezes excess epoxy out as well as compacting the part to remove any spatial voids, but also (2) provides a smooth surface finish to the final part, excepting a small helical path where the heat shrink tape overlapped. If you inspect at the photo carefully, you can see the helical overlap on both the commercial and X-Winder middle tube, but the X-Winder tube on the right has this helical path sanded down and a final brushed on coat of epoxy to give it that perfect look.

When the part has cured, you simply run the X-Winder in reverse and literally hand unwind the heat shrink tape in about 30 seconds with the machine at 60RPM or so. The heat shrink tape has a release agent on one side and it peels off the cured part.

In our earliest designs, we had a terrible problem removing the part from the mandrel, and left many mandrels (we use PVC, aluminum extrusions, steel or other) permanently wrapped with carbon fiber filament. However, we've developed a mandrel "Pre-Wrap" procedure that takes about 3 minutes before the winding process and creates a 2 mil thick slide-able wrap that allows the final cured part to be simply slid off of the mandrel - its quite slick, then the "pre-wrap" material pulled from the final part. Also, we have been experimenting with water soluble mandrel material that can wind complex shapes and then you just "wash out" the mandrel from the final part - but this will not be in the first release of the X-Winder that we'll be doing on 9/21/13 on Kickstarter.

Your pictures show non-circular (square, wings, etc.) shapes. I am assuming this means that the X-Winder will just conform to
whatever the shape of the mandrel. It would be good to have a video/example of a non-circular shape (like the wing). I can see
how a regular shape like a square or hexagon would wrap evenly - but how would the odd shape of the wing work?

I will be looking for your project on Kickstarter although the price is a bit out of the range I tend to go for.

bytemedwb Wrote:
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> but how would the odd shape of the
> wing work?

As long as the shape is convex, you could wrap it in that manner.

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Hi bytemedwb:

newperfection is about right - the filaments can't adhere to a concave surface - so if the airfoil shape had a reflexed trailed edge, the filament would basically create a flat surface in that area.

X-Winder,

What are the closest angles to the length of the tube that you've been able to achive?

Thanks,
Nate

Hi Nate:

We can "hoop wind" at 89 degrees, then get as low as about 20 degrees before filament begins to slip. However, we have 3D printed
a "spike collar" that can go at each ends of the mandrel and catch the filament on the barbs and we can get down to basically 0 degrees (ie filament aligned with the long axis of the mandrel). We are hoping that with the SDK/API we are releasing, that some app developers will be able to write app/code to do these sorts of things with spikes, etc - there's a whole lot we haven't even thought of yet.

As an update, We gone live on Kickstarter, here is the link:
[www.kickstarter.com]

A few more questions for you...

The screen shoot of the designer software shows options for the tube diameter at either end. Will it be able to handle other shapes or will end user developers need to develop the software for non round mandrels?

What are you using for a mandrel in the examples?

How large is the resin bath, i.e. would you need to add resin during the build of a 3" x 8' tube?

It'd also be great to see some more videos especially a demoulding.

i wish i had the money to spare for something like that, i can see a lot of uses for it. best of luck with that though.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

I'm also curious how the design software is able to handle machine setup changes i.e. user modifactions to the geometery of the filament trolley (not sure what the moving resin bath part is techinically called) I hope NY went well and you had safe travels.
Nate

X-Winder has just released our new 4-Axis X-Winder filament winder model 4X-23. You can see it in action at
[www.youtube.com]

This is real carbon fiber filament - not additive fragments in plastic

The new Model 4X-23 is available at www.xwinder.com

Hello X-Winder,

You said software is open source. Where I could download software it?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2015 12:20PM by ddosoff.