DIANA J'S BLOG

Let me start my reflection by saying that this is my last college-required assignment. It is exciting and sad at the same time. Right now, I simply cannot absorb the fact that tonight there will be no homework, no studying for finals, no presentations, no school. In this respect, it is really great that we have had an opportunity to take a class where we could just think and express our ideas about different things: things that may seem irrelevant at first sight but at the same time are much more important than grades and all the hassle that makes up “school.” Our prolonged discussion of failure and success is still fresh in my mind and gets me inspired every time I think about it. Personally, the most important thing I learnt from this class is that it is ok to fail sometimes. Being honor students, we are used to perfectionism in everything we do; we have high expectations and are very unforgiving of ourselves. At least I know I am. And at times throughout the class I felt that my idea or my project is not as good as I would want it to be. It really frustrated me that because of long working hours and other classes I couldn’t give it my all. Nevertheless, when I look at Milestone 3, I can’t help being a little proud of my Pet Hugger. Somehow, by the end of the semester my idea shaped itself and now it exists in a perceptible form of a 4-minute video. I am glad that I had decided to pursue something I am truly interested in. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the class as much if I chose a project just for the sake of passing the class.

Also, I found the atmosphere of open discussion and friendly feedback prevailing in the classroom to be very stimulating. If I could go back to late January when I was just starting the class, the advice I would give myself would be not to worry so much about everything and to just enjoy the creation process.

The questions I have decided to dedicate my posts to were: whether 3D printers can actually produce textiles and if so what it means for traditional apparel manufacturing. Unfortunately, I have to admit that, overall, the results of my findings are quite disappointing. It turns out that, although 3D printers can indeed produce different types of textiles, those textiles are hardly suitable for anything but fashion world. So unless you are Lady Gaga, the chances of you wearing a 3d printed dress any time soon are quite slim.

Development of disposable panties seemed to be a breakthrough. However, after the initial excitement about the product disappeared, the company failed to make much progress. In almost every article I saw about 3D printed textiles, there were words like “a threat to traditional manufacturing”, “technology that will make a needle obsolete in no time,” etc etc. Yet, I think that the main purpose of these articles is to get people excited rather than to objectively describe the industry. After reading “Fabricated,” it was somewhat easier for me to filter the information and to lower my expectations. But maybe the main cause of my disappointment is that I am so excited about all of the possibilities of 3D printing that it makes me awfully impatient. As to traditional manufacturing, I do not think that it is threatened at all. In my opinion, it is safe for quite some time.

Although right now the results of my findings are disappointing, I do hope that 3D printed textiles keep growing and developing. Besides the fact that they bring a lot of benefits, I would really love to be able to 3D print my Pet Hugger.

On the bright note, while I was collecting information about textiles, something absolutely unbelievable happened in the world of 3D printing: a woman from Harvard found a way to 3D makeup! It’s inventions like this that give me hope. Please see the link below for more information on 3D printed makeup.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mink-3d-prints-makeup-2014-5

A while ago, when I first started researching possible 3D printed materials to use for my beloved Pet Hugger, I stumbled upon an article on http://www.brit.co/electroloom/ published in the end of January 2014. Basically, this article by Lisa Raphael defines big ambitions of a little company called Electroloom. I mean, what can be more ambitious than the claim that all of us will be wearing 3D printed outfits by the end of 2014? Before we all get overexcited, however, I would like to note that it is end of May and so far I haven’t heard of anybody wearing 3D printed clothes on a regular basis. So unless Electroloom really steps their game up within the next 7 months, my guess is it’s not happening. The overall hype level of the article reminded me of Fabricated; only this time I’m not falling for it! The trip to NRI was really sobering in this respect.

Anyway, Electroloom is a 3D printer from a company by the same name that hopes to create wearable wardrobe essentials like T-shirts and sweaters by year’s end. So far, the team has had success printing out polymer fabric as sheets and tubes claiming that creating more complicated shapes and fibers that resemble cotton is next on their list. The author of the article also states that if Electroloom delivers on its promise, “the industry as a whole would be looking at an answer to more sustainable production with a way to create a wardrobe inside your home, no sewing machine necessary. And more than just making advances in at-home 3D printing, the company’s finished product will be one part social media experiment where figuring out what to wear is an experience where you can play designer, or choose from an online database of crowdsourced designs.”

So maybe there is hope for my Pet Hugger yet, although definitely not by the end of 2014. I would like to think that by the time I get bored with my stable Wall Street job, Electroloom will make it possible to 3D print any textile. And once I’m ready to take risks, technology is there to make the launch of my idea possible.

In my previous blog post, I was exploring the advantages of 3D printed textiles that can be used to produce different outfits, such as, for example, a dress and a pair of matching shoes. In this post, I’m taking the idea a little further. With all the advantages that 3D printing has to offer why stop at outwear? That’s right, this time I will be looking into the applications of 3D printing for producing underwear.

Turns out an Israeli couple, Tamar Giloh and her husband, has functional hardware that can spray polymers and fibers in a controlled manner to produce disposable panties, sportswear, bandages and other products. Their company, called Tamicare, has raised $10 million since it was founded in 2001. According to Gwen Ackerman’s article “The Next Revolution in 3-D Printing: Disposable Panties,” the Manchester, England-based Tamicare is in talks with Israeli contract manufacturers to assemble its fabric printers. The company, which has a dozen employees, sells its machines to cosmetic and health-care companies for about $3 million each. One unit can produce 10 million biodegradable panties a year.

Since Giloh presented the fabric-printing technology at a textile-industry conference in Denver in June, 2013, the startup has received 30 inquiries from companies interested in using the printer. A supplier for the lingerie-retail giant Victoria’s Secret visited Tamicare’s office in the U.K. recently to witness underwear being printed in three seconds. “A panty created at this speed isn’t something you see every day,” Giloh said.

The market for 3-D printing is expected to continue strong double-digit growth over the next several years, especially as new use cases such as Tamicare’s emerge.

“Making products in this way is attractive because of the design freedom it provides, but for items such as clothing, the challenge is to ensure the results are truly functional, rather than just visually appealing,” said Stephen Russell, a professor at the University of Leeds in the U.K. who specializes in textile research. Tamicare’s innovative underwear has both covered, Giloh said.

Although I understand that the probability of me being able to wear 3D printed outfits any time soon is minuscule, I still cannot help being excited at the idea. Every time I need a dress for an important occasion, I spend hours looking at Google images trying to figure out what it is that I want. However, this is the easy part. Complications begin when I start actual shopping: going from store to store looking for my perfect dress. Hours later, frustrated and in most cases disappointed, I either settle for a dress that is slightly similar to what I was looking for or just give up completely. My husband, who is probably the most patient man in the world, has accompanied me on such “dress hunts” too many time.  Needless to say that even he gets a little anxious every time I say: “Babe, I need a dress.” That is why it would be absolutely amazing to just print out the dress I want and avoid the folly of shopping malls altogether.

Besides the apparent benefit that 3D printing offers in terms of convenience, there is also a number of green advantages. Accoding to Jasmin Malik Chua’s article

“Are 3D-Printed Fabrics the Future of Sustainable Textiles?” the ultraviolet beams used to fuse layers of powdered, recyclable thermoplastic into shape, leave behind virtually no waste. Its localized production and one-size-fits-all approach also racks up markedly fewer travel miles, requires less labor, and compresses fabrication time to a matter of hours, rather than weeks or months.

Designer Jiri Evenhuis, in collaboration with Janne Kyttanen of Freedom of Creation, was the first to toy with the idea of using 3D printers to create textiles. “Instead of producing textiles by the meter, then cutting and sewing them into final products, this concept has the ability to make needle and thread obsolete,” Evenhuis has said.

A decade later, designer-researchers like Freedom of Creation in Amsterdam and Philip Delamore at the London College of Fashion are cranking out seamless, flexible textile structures using software that converts three-dimensional body data into skin-conforming fabric structures. The potential for bespoke clothing, tailored to the specific individual, are as abundant as the patterns that can be created, from interlocking Mobius motifs to tightly woven meshes.

Freedom of Creation’s 3D textiles at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City:

http://vimeo.com/6963833

When I first started doing research on 3D printed textiles, I think the first thing I learned was that to my delight there actually are several prototypes of flexible fabrics that are already out there. The article “3D Printed Flexible Textiles – a Stitch toward Personalized Clothing,” which can be found on www.3ders.org, explores the current possibilities of additive manufacturing in the realm of textiles. Also, the website itself is quite intriguing as it is specifically dedicated to 3D printing news and one can always find a variety of articles about different applications of 3D printers.

Anyway, according to the article, Flexible Textile Structures by the [trans]LAB team – Negar Kalantar and Alireza Borhani works in cooperation with the Design, Research, and Education for Additive Manufacturing Systems (DREAMS) Laboratory at Virginia Tech to produce textile prototypes which are resilient, form-fitting, and soft to the touch.

The main design concern of Flexible Textile Structures was designing a fabric that was both flexible and rigid. The shape remains fixed – no matter how the shape is manipulated. Prototypes were generated by Rhino, Grasshopper, and SolidWorks and fabricated with two additive manufacturing processes, Powder Bed Fusion and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM).

Kalantar and Borhani use simple shapes – like circles –to interconnect and form meshes of criss-crossing patterns and möbius motifs. Both the digital and analog models of these designs are kaleidoscopic and totally mesmerizing.

Prototype #1 uses Powder Bed Fusion and has a medieval aesthetic, looking like a patch from a 3D-printed coat of mail.

Prototype #2 uses Powder Bed Fusion and has a ‘strategically-knotted-string’ quality which is fitting for fabric design.

Many will recognize Prototype #3 as a fantastic, interconnected 3D version of designs produced with their childhood Spirograph set. This prototype was also made using Powder Bed Fusion.

Prototype #4 uses Powder Bed Fusion is another woven mesh design.

Prototype #5 uses Powder Bed Fusion and resembles interconnected metal clothes hangers.

In the future, 3D printing technology may be used to create unique flexible textile structures tailored to specific individuals; 3D data may be used to develop bespoke, skin-conforming fabric structures. Such future developments in textile manufacturing may be seen as a figurative extension of the intricate prototypes of Flexible Textile Structures. And, if these prototypes are any indication, then the future of textiles promises to be complex and exciting.

For quite a while now, I have been trying to connect 3D printing with the product I really enjoy developing: my beloved Pet Hugger. Ideally, I want to be able to 3D print my creation in one piece without having to involve the sewing machine. The material that I am planning to use for Pet Huggers needs to be both durable and comfortable. As far as I know, there is no machine yet that is capable of printing wearable fabric. On the other hand, I have heard of 3D printers being used in fashion industry to produce items for clothing lines. For example, Lady Gaga’s 3D printed dresses have produced quite a sensation in the fashion world.

This topic captivated me so much that I have spent many hours researching whether 3D printers can actually produce textiles and if so what it means for traditional apparel manufacturing. Since it has been a particularly fun experience, I decided to devote even more time to the research of this subject and to share my findings with everyone who would care to read my blog. With this said, welcome to 3D Printers and Apparel Manufacturing!