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3D Printed

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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Fashion Tech Path Mainstream Culture Adoption
Fashion

Fashion Tech’s Path To Mainstream Culture

September 4, 2015

Wearable Tech

While we couldn’t make the trek across the Atlantic for yesterday’s Interlaced 2015 runway show and discussions, it is a great opportunity to look at fashion tech and contemplate what the future might hold. Theoretically fashion tech has so much potential, but currently it feels nonexistent in our daily lives. Besides enhanced textiles, there are very few fashion tech items being sold to the public. Part of that is a technology and cost issue, but it also is a perception issue, and that is changing.

The past 12 months have been huge for wearable technology. Up until now, most devices have been $150 or less and were extremely specialized in functionality. With the release of a slew of Android Wear devices and the Apple Watch consumers are beginning to become more comfortable with wearing technology and paying a premium for it. A smartwatch is really the first piece of personal technology that is on display. A phone is thrown into your pocket, but a watch is in plain sight constantly. There is no discrete way to use it, once you raise your wrist to look at the time or interact with it, it is obvious you are using a smart watch. From personal experience,  

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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

Electroloom Debuting 3D Printer For Clothes

May 20, 2015

Electroloom 3D Printer For Clothing

Electroloom is perhaps the closest thing we have seen yet to a true 3D printer for clothes. The concept is simple, insert a thin metal template into the printer and then it is showered with an electrically changed mixture of liquid polyester and cotton to produce a strong, soft, seamless garment. Currently on Kickstarter, Electroloom is not quite ready for consumers. Instead the company is borrowing the Oculus Rift model and using Kickstarter as a platform to get the device into the hands of developers and engineers, helping the company further refine the technology. The team at Electroloom thought of using an electrospinning process for creating garment from work they were doing with bioprinting blood vessels. One of the preliminary steps in printing blood vessels requires a scaffolding to be built via electrospinning. The technology needed to be re-conceptualized though to create something as large as an item of clothing. It will be interesting to see where this technology could lead. 3D printing of clothing has the potential to completely reshape an entire industry and democratize fashion. In addition to allowing anyone in the world to distribute and access garment designs, it would also help address worsening ecological and labor issues related to the manufacturing of clothing.  Without a doubt, the team at Electroloom has succeeded in creating a device that fabricates fabric based clothing on demand, though the results are still rough. It will be interesting to see how it develops! Check out the Kickstarter video after the break:  

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by Doug Parker
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Organovo L'Oreal 3D Printer Skin Samples
Cosmetics

L’Oreal Plans to Use 3D Printed Skin To Test Cosmetics

May 20, 2015

Organovo L'Oreal 3D Printer Skin SamplesL’Oreal is partnering with bioprinting company Organovo to print skin samples for cosmetic testing. Organovo has developed a technology that utilizes two print heads, one for human cells, the other for a hydrogel support matrix, to produce small skin samples at a commercial scale. Currently the French beauty company grows their own .5cm square skin samples for testing, breaking down a skin sample to individuals cells and then regrowing them. L’Oreal has been doing this since the 1980s and on a yearly basis creates approximately the amount of skin that is on a cow. After ceasing testing on animals in 2013, they have a growing need to more efficiently create skin samples. Organovo’s 3D printed bio-tissue will be able to generate significantly more skin samples for L’Oreal and with less labor. If all goes according to plan with the technology, the French beauty company will have exclusive access to the tech for non-perscription skin care use. If you haven’t heard of Organovo, it is worth checking them out; the bioprinting work they are doing is impressive.

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by Doug Parker
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Crowdsource, Fashion

Trusst Uses 3D Printers To Design A New Type Of Bra

May 8, 2015

Trusst Lingerie Bra 3D Printed Support

Trusst Lingerie has designed a new type of bra aimed at offering better support to bustier women. The technology behind the bra comes from the engineering world; the two women behind the project looked at the trusses that support bridges from underneath and sought to apply the same concept to a bra. Their design relies on the ribcage for support instead of the shoulders. The company, currently Kickstarting their first production run, relied heavily on MakerBot 3D printers to prototype and design the support for the undergarment. The entire support structure was modeled on a computer and then printed. Using the 3D printer, they were able to quickly and inexpensively tweak the design and test it with a wide variety of body shapes. It is exciting to see the fashion industry find new, out-of-the-box, and unexpected uses for 3D printers, creating items that would not have been possible only a few years ago.

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by Doug Parker
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Disney Fabric Printer Felt
Manufacturing

Disney Research Prototypes A New Fabric 3D Printer

April 20, 2015

Disney Fabric Printer Felt

Almost a year ago, we reported that Disney Research was hard at work on different 3D printer techniques for textiles. The entertainment company has continued on that mission and, together with Carnegie Mellon University, has announced a new advancement. The method relies on additive manufacturing to build a shape by stacking slices of thick felt. Similar to a standard 3D printer, a 3D object is loaded into the software and automatically broken down into slices. Instead of a hot extruder printing the object with plastic, a laser precisely cuts a sheet of felt, similar to a CNC machine. That slice is then placed on top of the previous layer on the build platform. The “printer head” then applies heat to the new layer of fabric to activate an adhesive on its underside. A combination of materials can be used and different cutting techniques can result in the final object being more flexible in one direction than the other. No word on what Disney is hoping to achieve with their research into textile printing, but it is clear that the company is taking it very seriously. Head past the break to see the printer in action:  

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by Doug Parker
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