Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Clothes and leather
The company Modern Meadow founded in 2011 by researchers of bio-engineering is aiming
at 3-printing of leather with cells grown from desired animals (they are also experimenting
with 3D printed meat). The project is still in its starting phase and it remains to be seen if it
becomes successful or not.
The British company Tamicare has developed a process called “Cosyflex” in which a breath-
able non-woven fabric is 3D printed. The fabric is initially intended for disposable under-
wear. Tamicare's machinery can produce finished garments directly, no need to make the
fabric first. Tamicare's first product is underwear including an absorbent pad for the female
hygiene market.
Materialise has developed a flexible material branded “TPU 92A-1”, the material has very
good tear resistance and durable elasticity. TPU 92A-1 will probably find better use in other
areas, but it was used by clothes designer Iris Van Herpen, well known for her 3D printed
creations, to create several dresses made with SLS technique by Materialise. Some other 3D
printed fashion gowns did receive media attention early on, such as those worn by Dita Von
Teese and Lady Gaga, but these creations are more, in the words of Terry Gou, “gimmicks”
than real 3D printed textiles. Dita Von Teese's dress were printed by Shapeways with SLS in
Nylon and Lady Gaga's dress was printed by Materialise in photopolymer using their Mam-
moth stereolithography machine. In reality these dresses say more about plastic than wear-
able textiles.
Pringle's collaboration with Richard Beckett from the Bartlett School of Architecture is also
similar since a SLS printer is used to make tiny nylon parts which are incorporated in sur-
rounding textile. Dutch clothes designer Borre Akkersdijk has outfitted a knitting machine
which is based on mattress making technology. Borre also outfits his dresses with techno-
logy, but it is questionable if his technique can be called “3D printing of textiles”.
The Electroloom is a project that was started by a team lead by Aaron Rowley. The Electro-
loom is a 3D printingesque technique that prints out nonwoven fabric which has been used
to make prototype clothes. The team is also experimenting with incorporating organic fibers
in the materials.
“Open Knit” is a project with an open source Arduino-controlled knitting machine, and
should probably not be characterized as “3D printing”. Another project that tries to combine
traditional textiles and 3D printing is “Digicrafted”. In this case 3D printed material is the
base and traditional textiles are being added to “soften” the result. Experiments of 3D print-
ing with cotton and silk are still waiting for successful results.
The renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil, who is also a Director of Engineering at Google, pre-
dicted in 2014 that we will be able to 3D print clothes by 2020.
