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JS Shoes 3D knitted printed kickstarter
Manufacturing, Shoes

World’s First Entirely 3D Knitted Shoes Launch On Kickstarter

February 11, 2016

JS Shoes 3D knitted printed kickstarter

While most of us understand the concept of 3D printing, you might be a little less familiar with 3d knitting. The ingenious technology allows you to three dimensionally create fabric items in a specialized loom. This means that an entire garment can be created at once with zero waste; it emerges from the loom as a complete garment. Not only is this amazing for the environment, it also results in more comfortable clothing, since they are seamless. From a designer’s perspective, 3D knitting means clothing can be prototyped in a fraction of the time (and cost) versus the tradition cut and sew approach. The technology isn’t new (it emerged in the 1990’s) but it is finally gaining traction thanks to reduced costs and advances in tech. In fact, one of the very first stories we covered was an open source 3D knitting machine called Open Knit.  

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

MIT Develops Method To Easily Tweak 3D Printable Designs

September 4, 2015

MIT-3D-Printing_1080

If 3D printing is ever to become mainstream, especially for fashion, there needs to be a way to make simple tweaks to designs. Whether it is to switch from a v-neck to a crew, change heel hight, or alter a shirt size, customization is key. Currently the process entails editing complicated CAD files and then waiting for the software to determine if those changes will result a feasible object. But researchers at MIT have found a method to make altering the CAD files much simpler and consumer friendly. Designs are displayed along with sliders that allow you to alter predefined perimeters. Even better, the software analyzes your choices in realtime and will not allow you to select a combination of setting that would result in an infeasible object.

While the example from MIT shows off customizations to toy train, it is easy to see how important this technology will be for printing clothing and accessories at home. Unlike a vase or a toy car, fashion is almost never a one-size-fits-all business; there needs to be an ability for 3D printable fashion to be customized by anyone. MIT has created a vital element for on-demand manufacturing to succeed. This is not the only 3D printing news out of MIT this month. The university has also discovered a way to print with glass, print with 10 materials simultaneously, and print directly onto and around objects placed on a printer bed.

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

How Well Do You Know The Environmental Impact Of Fashion?

July 17, 2015

Fashion & The Environment

A sobering story published on the official EU website positions the fashion industry as one of the top polluters in the world. According to a Danish Fashion Institute study, 25% of the world’s chemicals are produced for textiles. In fact, the fashion industry is the 2nd highest polluter of clean water, only behind agriculture, and the 2nd most polluting industry overall, second only to oil. These are staggering numbers.

It is not surprising that the agriculture and oil industries have significant environmental impact, but we did not expect fashion to be immediately behind them. Part of the reason for being surprised by this is the opaqueness of the fashion business. As a consumer we have very little understanding about any aspect of our clothing; even if you were to seek out the information you would likely run into lots of dead ends. By and large, the industry does not  

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

Antimicrobial Silver Coatings React To Chemo Drugs

July 13, 2015

Nanosilver coating harmful chemo

There is a growing belief, which isn’t being discussed much, that silver based antimicrobial coatings are harmful. The silver nano-coatings are used on everything from medical supplies to socks, becoming more and more ever-precent in our lives with minimal understanding of the effects of chronic exposure. While you shouldn’t go and throw out your running shirt, it is something to be aware of. Since we have touched on this before, when a study came out highlighting the effect silver coatings have on chemo drugs we thought it was worth bringing up again. A team of researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) was examining potential issues in IV catheters used for chemo and found that silver used to prevent microbial growth was spurring an unfavorable reaction. Not only was the silver causing the chemo drug (5-Fu) to breakdown, the reaction was also releasing dangerous hydrogen fluoride gas. According to NTNU there have been relatively few studies as to how various drugs react to other substances and coatings they come in contact with. The good news is that there are other antimicrobial coatings, such as graphene, that are safe. Hopefully, thanks to studies such as the one at NTNU, they will become more widely used and help increase the effectiveness of cancer treatments.

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

Researchers Develop Stretchable Batteries Using Kirigami

June 22, 2015

Kirigami Stretchable Battery Arizona State

Kirigami, a centuries old Asian art form involving the cutting and folding of paper, is usually not associated with modern technology. But researchers at Arizona State University have devised a method to utilize Kirigami to craft stretchable batteries. Small, thin batteries are interconnected and folded together in a way that allows them to bend and stretch up to 150% their original size. The researchers view the new battery as a replacement for the power supplies currently used in wearable electronics. They view those bulky and rigid batteries as one of the primary limiting forces in the development of wearable tech. The new technology requires no new manufacturing techniques and would allow batteries to be woven directly into fabrics. The team has released a video of the battery integrated into a stretchable band and powering a smartwatch. Head past the break to check it out.  

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by Doug Parker
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Fashion, Manufacturing

Fashion Company Honest By Launches 3D Printable Accessories

June 19, 2015

Honest By Launches Purchasable Designs For 3D Printed Accessories

In what marks a first in the fashion industry, a brand has launched a line of accessories designed to be printed at home by the consumer. Ranging from brooches to combs, Honest By has released 9 items for you to create at home with a 3D printer. The designs cost between approximately $35 to $80 and can be used an unlimited number of times. While the designs are mostly simplistic, a fashion brand testing the waters of selling printable plans to the consumer is a notable milestone. Honest By was founded by Bruno Pieters in 2012 with the goal of being the first company to have a 100% transparency policy.

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

Custom Silk Manufacturer Bolt Threads Raises $40 Million

June 8, 2015

Bolt Threads $40 Million Funding

Referring to their technology as “the first real fabric innovation in decades,” Bolt Threads has announced they have raised $40 million in funding. The company was founded in 2009 to study spider silk and innovate ways to make it even better. What they found is that there are over 240,000 different types of spider silk. The silk is constructed of proteins; it is the slight variations in these proteins and the protein structures which result in the unique properties of the different variations. Bolt Threads discovered that by utilizing the proteins from yeast, one can manufacture “natural” silk and program the fabric to have properties of your choosing. The lab-created silk can behave like a technical fabric, be waterproof, stretchy like spandex, or soft like cotton. The idea is pretty novel, a natural fabric that can take on almost any property you would like. There are no synthetic substances involved and since yeast is extremely renewable, no stress is placed on the environment. Bolt Fabrics is already working with the textile industry to incorporate the fabric into garments, partnering with a manufacturer in North Carolina. It will be interesting to see if this new fabric has the ability to catch on in the manufacturing realm. A lot will have to do with pricing, availability, color fasting, and durability. Head past the break for a video explaining more about the innovative work being done at Bolt Fabrics.  

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by Doug Parker
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