Leveraging a 3D printer “defect” to create a new quasi-textile

https://news.mit.edu/2020/defextiles-leveraging-3d-printer-defect-to-create-quasi-textiles-1020

by DoreenMichele • 6 years ago

136 45 6 years ago

news.mit.edu

bigiain2• 6 years ago

Hmmm, I wonder if a dual extruder printer using conductive filament in one nozzle could print flexible fabric circuit boards? Embed cabling for leds/elwire directly into the fabric?

Firerouge• 6 years ago

I suspect it would be exceedingly difficult to get enough conductive materials in the mix, while also sufficiently purging to insulate between different traces/threads.

Perhaps printing an outfit entirely from conductive threads could be used to create a grounded Faraday cage suit/dress.

bigiain2• 6 years ago

Purging might not be a probelm with dual extruders? The "trick" that makes it possible might not work without all the filament coming out of a single extruder nozzle in a connected spiderweb though...

noodlesUK• 6 years ago

Such conductive garments already exist in the form of fencing lamés, and other special-purpose wear which is used by electricians.

A fun fact is that whilst wearing a fencing lamé, one is generally impervious to tasers and stun guns.

pontifier• 6 years ago

This is fantastic. I'm reminded of the 3D printed broom from a few years ago. I remember being blown away in a similar fashion then. This type of under extrusion can create very thin filaments, but the Gcode to generate these structures isn't easy to create with the traditional model=>slicer=>Gcode software stack.

I've been out of the loop for a couple of years though, so I'm interested to know if this has evolved much.

meekmind• 6 years ago

I think it's fair to say there have been sweeping changes.

rhklein2• 6 years ago

I wrote a G-code Importer for Blender recently. Having access to the toolpaths directly lets you do some interesting things conventional slicers can't do. [link redacted]

I've been experimenting with storing extrusion multiplier info inside Blender to make weighted extrusion values based on a texture.

curiousllama4• 6 years ago

I wonder if they just used a custom slicer. In undergrad, I wrote my own slicer and used it to do silly things (less "can I make this?" than "What would happen if?").

I would imagine they took a similar (though, obviously, much more intelligent) approach here, just thinking directly in terms of slicer features, rather than in terms of models.

thdrdt• 6 years ago

Gcode for this type of 3d printer is very easy to understand and generate.

Some years ago I did some experiments with 3d printing in 3d (printing wire frames in 3d).

But it takes time to get the feed rates and print speeds right.

Edit: an example of wireframe printing: http://www.creativeapplications.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/...

Munksgaard• 6 years ago

Out of curiosity, what printer would they be using for something like this? I've been considering getting a 3D-printer for a while, but I don't know enough to decide which one to get.

typerandom• 6 years ago

It looked like they were using the Prusa I3 MK3S.

klohto• 6 years ago

Just get Prusa. It’s used both by professionals and amateurs. In case it won’t be enough for your use, you will already know enough details about 3D printing to choose your next printer.

cannedslime• 6 years ago

If you have the money and want a high quality FDM printer, buy a prusa. If you are on a budget get something like an Ender-3

curiousllama4• 6 years ago

This model is what I first got, and liked. Fun to put together and mess with. Won't print anything crazy, but will be plenty fun to play with.

https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/upgrades/183-original-prusa-i3-m...

lsllc• 6 years ago

I did an Ask HN [0] on this topic a few months ago and the answer was a Prusa I3 MK3S if you can afford it and the Creality Ender 3 if your budget is smaller.

I did get the Prusa I3 MK3S and it's just incredible, I'm astounded by the quality of the prints and the printer itself. I've already designed a number of parts in Fusion360 and printed them with a variety of different filaments (Flex, PLA, PETG) and having a lot of fun creating things!

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24032659

kevin_thibedeau• 6 years ago

If you want to print fast get a delta.

chrischen• 6 years ago

Very interested in the badminton shuttlecock implementation. Wonder if it can be superior to current plastic shuttlecocks.

londons_explore3• 6 years ago

Is the extruder speeding up and slowing down for each "blob" in the texture? Or is the extruder going constant speed and you're relying on surface tension to make the blobbyness?

rhklein2• 6 years ago

Most like some postprocessing in the gcode to multiply the extrusion rate by some factor for each blob.

curiousllama4• 6 years ago

Probably some combination. They used a cheap printer - I can't imagine those little prusa motors and gears are particularly precise with high-frequency, micro changes, even if they can get good consistency

londons_explore3• 6 years ago

I've run a 3d printer with the extrusion rate way down before (to try and produce very thin surfaces), and the results were far less consistent. I got big holes in my parts and massive dribbles and blobs in other places.

I wonder how these results can be so so so much better in comparison?

corty• 6 years ago

From my limited expirience, temperature of the extruded material must be in some narrow window, too cold or too hot and it will clump. Even within the window, the production of sticky hairs (what one would aim for in this case) varies a lot with temperature.

I can also imagine that the material plays a huge role, but I cannot say because I've only really used PLA.

jstanley• 6 years ago

The desired result is that you get a series of pulses of extrusion rather than random under-extrusion, so if you can't get consistent pulsing by adjusting temperature and extrustion rate, you could always hack Marlin to do it on purpose. I expect that is what they've done.

himinlomax2• 6 years ago

It looks like it works not by constantly underextruding, but only intermittently. The parts where the strands join are overextruded if anything.

lylecheatham2• 6 years ago

I'm pretty sure it's actually just a continuous under extrusion. It becomes periodic in nature because material gathers under the nozzle and then it hits the blob from the previous layer and gets pulled off. It's a similar effect to how droplets form and fall off of your faucet when the flow rate is low. This also leads to the diagonal angles seen as the Z-height goes up.

It's usually hard to get this to happen consistently, which they've done quite well.

I've got no citations, but I worked in FDM Additive Manufacturing for a few years, and spent 4 months of that designing extruders for a name brand company.

eudes_ochoa• 6 years ago

here's the author explaining how to achieve the print: https://twitter.com/FormanForm/status/1315759308450062336?s=...

kallistohak• 6 years ago

Finally someone solved the problem of sold out toilet paper in the pandemic

curiousllama4• 6 years ago

PLA toilet paper - It has holes, no absorbtion, sharp edges, and takes an hour per square to print.

Sign me up!

NikolaeVarius2• 6 years ago

I transitioned to sea shells to fix this problem

snovv_crash• 6 years ago

3 3D printed sea shells?

pstuart• 6 years ago

Bidets are a worthwhile investment.

eecc• 6 years ago

Read somewhere that there’s a whole field of research dedicated to mathematically designed, non-flat textiles.

If you think of it, all we do currently is cut and sew flat tiles of deformable cloth to approximate whatever curvature, but if you can print the material with the curvatures embedded it’s an interesting path to explore

LeifCarrotson• 6 years ago

Nike Flyknit shoes have this technology: https://www.nike.com/flyknit

They weave different densities and materials in different sections of the upper to make some areas stronger, some more breathable, some stretchy, etc. You may have seen it referenced in some of the recent furor over the Next% carbon midplate.

nicwolff• 6 years ago

North Sails' 3Di tech? They make precisely curved sails for racing yachts. https://www.northsails.com/sailing/en/innovation/3di-technol...

jeffrallen• 6 years ago

Wow. Mind blown.

mrfusion2• 6 years ago

This seems cool but my imagination doesn’t seem to be working today. I can’t seem to think of any interesting applications of this.

2muchcoffeeman• 6 years ago

There is literally a video with applications in the link.

mrfusion2• 6 years ago

I skimmed it. I guess I missed that.

eigenvalue• 6 years ago

Seems to me like this works on the same principles as these big machines used to make plastic netting for fruits:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Fruit-net-machine_620...

But $300 is a lot more accessible than $5,000, and it's a lot more customizable.

Cactus2018• 6 years ago

There are some great 'how its made' videos on youtube under combinations of search terms like

    circular loom weaving machine

Plastic netting for fruits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FG2d97nxSg

Lexus CF printing promo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kttvDaUIWCs

Leveraging a 3D printer “defect” to create a new quasi-textile

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