Laura Cooper, a second year student on the BSc (Hons) Secondary D&T Education, gave a excellent presentation on Monday afternoon about 3D textiles that has received little mention in D&T. Below is a brief synopsis of her talk using images, videos and links she shared with the audience.
Laura's presentation is part of a series led by our students and visitors are welcome to attend. Details of the next two can be found at the end of this post.
Defining 3D printed textiles
3 D printing involves 2D layering a material, usually a plastic, to create a 3D shape. This can be done using a 3D printer where the layers are created using a nozzle that ejects the plastic or selective laser sintering (Figure 1) where layers of powder are fused together with a laser (this is a form of rapid prototyping). These processes allows for complex shapes to be manufactured that are already interlinked rather than individual pieces being made and joining afterwards – a form of chain mail.
Figure 1: interlocking sections
designed by Bradley Rothenburg
3D printing with textiles also removes the need for seams and by
using a body scanner it has the potential to produce clothing items which fit
your body perfectly - assuming this is what we want!
Figure 2: the process of selective laser
printing
(Image from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_melting#Materials)
What’s happening now with 3D printing? The current position
In 2013 the fashion designer Iris van Herpen and architect
Professor Neri Oxman designed a cat walk 3D printed item (Figure 3) which demonstrated the versatility of
intricate shapes that can be designed using a 3D printer.
Figure 3:Cat walk design by Iris
van Herpen and Professor Neri Oxman
One of the properties
most important in designing garments is the fluidity
and flexibility of the materials; some designers from Nervous System have begun
to resolve the problems with 3D printers producing very rigid materials by
looking at how things can be interlinked.
Another restriction with
traditionally produced 3D products is that their size is
limited by the printer bed's dimensions. Nervous System resolved this by using
a physics computer modelling to have the garment made
as a 'crumpled' dress rather than the more traditional idea of being
cut out flat (figure 4).
Figure 4: maximising the size of the
printer bed
This does begin to push the scope of what is a textile, given that
currently most of the designs seem to be made using a plastic but in
a more rigid form than might be commonly seen in fashion
design.
How might it be in the future?
Joshua Harris has begun to think of a future scenario where
we all might have a 3D printer in our home; Barlex and Stevens (2012) have also
considered this as a disruptive technology. In this situation with
one in our home he imagines the process could be this;
1. Select
clothing designs from a catalogue and purchase the design drawing file, which
is sent to you for downloading.
2. Buy
cartridges to print out your clothes using cotton.
3. Have your
body scanned to capture your individual measurements.
4. Before
going to bed select your outfit for the next day, overnight the printer makes
your clothes (Figure
5).
Figure 5: Choosing your outfit (step 4)
(Image from http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130315-making-clothes-at-home-with-your-3d-clothing-printer.html)
5. Next
morning you leave the house in your ‘new’ clothes that fit you perfectly
6. Come home
and if you don’t want to wear them again, shred and recycle the cotton ready
for making new clothes tomorrow.
What might be some implications of this 'disruptive technology'?
These are some question posed by Laura in the session that are a good
starting point for discussion in D&T lessons.
•
If designers are selling the designs and cartridges,
what happens to our high street stores? Jobs lost?
•
From own experience I don’t buy clothes to fit exact.
Buy larger clothes to change the style of an outfit. Does entering our
measurements hinder the individuality of a person?
•
What about the option of buying clothes as a gift for
someone's birthday? Would we have to carry around a book of measurements of
close family and friends on the off chance we want to surprise them with a
garment for their birthday?
•
If you’ve paid for the design will this always be
available to you? If so will the consumers build up a catalogue of garments and
never need to purchase a design again?
Further into the future
Scientists
have begun to investigate how silk worms ‘3D print’ silk fabric with the idea
of mimicking this in the design of a new 3D textile printer – biomimicry in
action (see video below).
SILK PAVILION from Mediated Matter Group on Vimeo.
Finally - The next stage of Laura's work is to suggest how this topic can be used within a series of D&T lessons, with the hope that she might be able to use some when on school placement next year.
Next presentations:
Monday 19th January - Cultured meat
Monday 26th January - Biomimicry
Both start at 4pm in Maudslay 222, City Campus, Nottingham Trent University, NG1 4BU
If you would like to attend or want some further information please drop me an email: alison.hardy@ntu.ac.uk
Reference
Barlex, D. & Stevens, M. (2012 Making by printing – disruption inside and outside school? in Thomas Ginner, Jonas Helstrom and Magnus Hulten (Eds) Technology Education in the 21st Century Proceedings of the PATT 26 Conference 2012, 64 – 73, Stockholm, Linkoping University available here
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