Carbon nanotube product manufacturing system and method of manufacture thereof

A method of manufacturing a carbon nanotube product, the method comprising:

• blending an unaligned carbon nanotube material comprising carbon nanotube molecules with solid solvent particles;
• activating a nanotube solvent by liquefying the solid solvent particles;
• producing a nanotube dope solution by mixing the nanotube solvent and the unaligned carbon nanotube material;
• forming a carbon nanotube proto-product by extruding the nanotube dope solution, thereby imparting alignment to carbon nanotube molecules of the carbon nanotube proto-product;
• and
• forming an aligned carbon nanotube product by solidifying the carbon nanotube proto-product by:
• exposing the carbon nanotube proto-product to an infrared radiation source at a wavelength selected in the range of 1 μm to 130 μm to reduce absorption of the radiation by the nanotube solvent relative to absorption of the radiation by carbon nanotubes of the carbon nanotube proto-product, and
• exposing the carbon nanotube proto-product to a chemical coagulant, wherein the chemical coagulant is a solvent for the nanotube solvent and a non-solvent for the carbon nanotube proto-product.