新3D列印技術能「印出」服裝 | 3D Printing Clothing

3D列印比基尼

新3D列印技術能「印出」服裝

(發佈日期：103年5月30日)

藉著將羊毛與羊毛混紡紗線轉化成布料物品（包含服裝），新型3D列印機具開啟科技新可能性的潛力。

由卡內基梅隆大學及迪士尼匹茲堡研究中心所開發出的3D列印機，看起來像是印表機和縫紉機的結合體，能列印出蓬鬆感的3D物品。

卡內基梅隆大學人機互動研究所（Human-Computer Interaction Institute）的教授Scott Hudson，在迪士尼研究中心協助下開發出製氈列印機（the felting printer），其列印成果讓人聯想到手工編織物。

跟其他3D列印機一樣，此款列印機能直接透過電腦繪製模型並列印出成品，經由電腦繪製能快速依照模型列印出物件與客製化產品。

事實上，此款列印機的操作與熱融擠製成型技術（Fused Deposition Modeling, FDM）類似，FDM為最常運用於低階3D列印機的技術。FDM列印機會將熔融的塑料自噴嘴中擠出細線後形成「層」，各層相黏如支撐平衡般，層層堆疊出所要的物品形狀。

而製氈列印機噴頭則是印出毛氈線，而非熔融的塑料線。帶倒鉤刺的氈呢針附在列印機噴頭上，反覆來回穿入氈線，將纖維拉至下層的氈線裡，逐層纏繞並合在一起。

研究員表示，由於此款列印機所產出的紗線遠比FDM列印機形成的塑膠層來得厚，因此未能達到傳統3D列印機在尺寸方面的精準度。此外，氈製品也不如典型布料那樣強韌牢固。

3D列印服裝

3D列印服裝

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This 3-D Printer Will Make Clothes You'd Actually Wear

ELECTROLOOM HAS EARLY DESIGNS FOR A 3-D PRINTER THAT CAN MAKE ON-DEMAND APPAREL. AND WITH A NEW GRANT, IT MAY BE ABLE TO PRINT READY TO WEAR BY YEAR'S END.

So far, 3-D printed clothing has yet to produce truly wearable products. We've seen fashion-as-art, like Iris van Herpen’s creations, gimmicks, seen on the Victoria’s Secret runway, and plenty of jewelry and accessories. A fledgling company called Electroloom wants to expand this sub-market by 3-D printing basics, like T-shirts and sweaters.

Electroloom, founded by entrepreneur Aaron Rowley, is also the name of the company's sole product: an in-development 3-D printer for creating customized, on-demand apparel. Rowley recently won a grant from Alternative Apparel, the Atlanta-based company known for its comfortable and casual clothing made from organic cottons and recycled fibers. This is the second year that Alternative Apparel has awarded an up-and-coming entrepreneur (last year's was in Los Angeles). The program--in which Soma is a partner--is designed to give a leg up to entrepreneurs with do-gooder ideas. Electroloom won, in part, because of its focus on sustainable production.

“Something we are compelled by is embodied energy [which is] essentially the amount of energy that was used to take a raw material to a finished good,” Rowley tells Co.Design. “So a goal of this project is to reduce the amount of embodied energy in an article of clothing.”

Electroloom still has a way to go. So far Rowley and his team have managed to print sheets and tubes of polymer fabric with the machine. The Alternative Grant will allow them to pursue more complicated shapes, like T-shirts, as well as fibers that more closely resemble cotton. Natural fibers like cottons and furs are more easily destroyed during the printing process, so while they prototype and search for a solution, Electroloom will use synthetic materials, or a mix of natural and synthetic.

Eventually, Rowley imagines an online database with crowdsourced designs, not unlike Shapeways’ online emporium of designs. “We think it may also be practical to provide basic templates--T-shirts, beanies, and the like--for users who may not be entirely design savvy,” he tells Co.Design. First up for Electroloom? “Perhaps a beanie.”

The Alternative Grant gives Electroloom a one-year membership to San Francisco’s TechShop, and Alternative Apparel president Erik Joule says that mentorship from him and Soma founder Mike Del Ponte should help Electroloom be ready for an end-of-year launch.

新聞來源 Source: 紡拓會、Co.Design