[malandrew]

Can carbon fiber be needle punched to get most of the benefit with a much much simpler process? I reckon adding some sort of barbed needle that can move over the surface of laid carbon fiber could accomplish this on non-flat surfaces. It would probably need some sort of corresponding arm on the backend to support the carbon fiber and accommodate the passage of the needle through the supporting platform.

Besides needle-punching, there are a bunch of other non-woven technologies that I reckon could be applied to carbon fibers in some form.