3D Printing with Biopolymers on Textile Knitted Structures

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Engineering - Chemical Engineering, Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences Mönchengladbach (Forschungsinstitut für Textil und Bekleidung), language: English, abstract: Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is the process of turning digital files into physical, three dimensional objects. This is realized using additive processes, which imply successfully laying down very thin layers of material until the object is finalized.

Since invented, it has been used for the purpose of rapid prototyping, and has evolved into a next generation manufacturing technology with the potential of allowing rapid, on site and on demand production of parts and end-products, signaling the beginning of a third industrial revolution.

The aim of this research is to successfully print different three dimensional structures on a variety of knitted fabrics, in order to observe the properties and the behavior of the biopolymers in these circumstances. To do so, 3 separate objects in form of thin rectangles were 3D printed on 7 different surfaces, which were later subject of a peel test that measured the adherence of the polymer to the knitted structure.