3D PRINTING ON TEXTILE

WEEK 17: WILD CARD WEEK

  • For this week's assignment choices were given to students to do anything that is related to digital fabrications.
  • Initially I have thought about molecular gastronomy but having access to such place was too difficult so I moved to my second choice which is to try 3d printing fabric.
  • With that I wants to 3d print on my T-shirt, with my design on it.

Study and References

  • I have started with looking around references if anyone have tried out such things. By searching about this I can say very handful of people tried this out or documented.
  • Good reference I have found here is below papers

ASSIGNMENTS I HAVE SET:

 

  • 3D Print on different types of fabrics
  • Evaluate what are the right setting and parameters to 3d print on textile
  • Try to 3d print and embed fabric between prints

Photos from 3D System

MIT's biologic, bio 3d printed responsive living textile

Test 1 : 3D Printing on cotton

  • This was blank test to start with, so I made very basic design in Rhino with 2 mm height and 5 mm thick, and exported it as STL
  • I took it to Cura, and slice it with following parameters.

 

Layer height: 0.15 mm

Wall thickness: 0.8 mm

Infill:100%

Print speed: 40

Travel speed: 60

Material: PLA

Bed Temp: 30 degree

Platform adhesion: None

Fan speed: 0%

Z height: 2 mm

 

  • Printing time was 31 minute.
  • Setting fabric on glass build plate of ultimaker.
  • For this I have used paper clips to mount fabric on glass build plate and on platform.
  • Printing PLA on cotton fabric
  • Observations:
  • First and foremost key thing is one has to mount fabric on build plate very tightly so fabric can stretch little bit and holds it tightly. Otherwise nozzle moves fabric along with it and print might get deform
  • Secondly, Bed level height - Initially I thought to increase z height for first layer due to thickness of fabric, but its not helping, I think one has to keep as usual 1 mm distance between nozzle and bed
  • To stick thermoplastic material on fabric first few layers must infuse inside fabric so good foundation gets made, and on which good 3d print can be built

Test 2: 3D Printing with flexible (TPE) material on cotton

  • Design in Rhino with polyline and extrude height of 0.8 mm
  • I For Flexible material in Cura, and slice it with following parameters.

 

Layer height: 0.2 mm

Wall thickness: 0.8 mm

Infill:100%

Print speed: 40

Travel speed: 60

Material: TPU

Bed Temp: 30 degree

Platform adhesion: None

Fan speed: 0%

Z height: 1 mm

 

  • Printing TPE on cotton fabric material.
  • Observations:
  • Flexible material flow rate was very less, it was look like when it moves on fabric, friction was not allowing material to come out smoothly.
  • TPU material is getting warp on cotton fabric
  • Retraction was very inefficient, this may be because of flexible material getting slip at feeder.

Test 3:  3D Printing with flexible (TPE) material on polyester

  • Now I have tried to print same design on polyester material to check how fabric material affects print quality
  • Mounting Polyester material on printer bed
  • Printing flex material on polyester
  • Observations:
  • Again material was sticking to fabric properly.
  • Material was getting warped on polyester t-shirt
  • It was not fusing with fabric properly.

Test 4: 3D Print PLA on cotton T-shirt

  • I have generated Gcode by slicing same design with PLA material and its properties.
  • As per below detail I have set print parameters.

 

Layer height: 0.2 mm

Wall thickness: 0.8 mm

Infill:100%

Print speed: 40

Travel speed: 60

Material: PLA

Bed Temp: 45 degree

Platform adhesion: None

Fan speed: 0%

Z height: 1 mm

 

  • Printing on cotton t-shirt
  • Observations
  • It was printing very nice way, first layer was fusing inside cotton fabric
  • Material is getting deposited properly.
  • Key thing is to hold/mount material by stretching it on bed. Fabric should not move while printing

Test 5: 3D Print PLA on cotton material

  • I have designed file in Rhino and extruded again with same 0.8mm height
  • Then prepared Gcode by slicing same design with PLA material and its properties.
  • As per below detail I have set print parameters.

Layer height: 0.2 mm

Wall thickness: 0.8 mm

Infill:100%

Print speed: 40

Travel speed: 60

Material: PLA

Bed Temp: 45 degree

Platform adhesion: None

Fan speed: 0%

Z height: 1 mm

 

  • Printing on cotton t-shirt
  • Final result after 3d printing

LEARNING CONCLUSION

  • PLA or Soft PLA is the best material to print on fabric
  • Best fabric material for 3d printing is cotton, because it provides enough resistance to embed/fuse first layer inside fabric net.
  • There might be some good flexible material in market which prints well on fabric, but my experience with flex material was very bed. May be I will experiment few more types of flex materials later on fabric.

ORIGINAL FILES

 

  • I am attaching here original files for this week as package, which includes 3d design files, and Gcodes I have generated for Ultimaker machine.
  • This can be downloaded from here

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2018 | Tanvir Khorajiya