Conventional textiles made of woven thread are extremely useful materials. [Sara Alvarez] There have been some successes in creating fabric-like materials through 3D printing, and although they are not identical, they have some similar features that make them unique and useful.
Fabrics are made by weaving or weaving together many threads. [Sara]Its 3D-printed fabric is different, since the printer cannot easily weave individual fibers together. Instead, different methods are used to create similar materials.
Probably the simplest is the chainmail method, where many small individual links come together to form a relatively rigid component. Alternatively, G-code or careful modeling can be used to create a pattern like fabric, which is printed directly on the flexible material to become a sheet like fabric. Finally, the infill method takes advantage of the code built into a slicer to create a pattern that can be 3D-printed to create fabric-like material by removing the top and bottom layers of the print.
[Sara] Creates a simple “fabric” swatch using the slicer method and demonstrates the qualities of the finished product. He showed a variety of applications that can take advantage of this strategy.
If you are a 3D-printing enthusiast who also loves to make clothes and apparel, consider printing some shoes – as we have seen before. Video after the break.