Why 3D printing clothes is NOT the future

36C3 preroll music

Herald Angel Noujoum: Hello and
welcome to our next talk,

Why 3D printing clothes is NOT the future.
Short question to the audience:

Who of you has already 3D printed anything?
Please raise your hand.

That's what I thought, I estimate that's about
80 % of the audience in this hall.

I am not surprised, it is the topic of this talk,
that's why you are here.

Second question: Who of you has already
tried 3D printing clothes?

Please raise your hand again.
I see four people.

So, how did it go? One person indicates
that it worked out well,

the others are showing hand gestures
of "not that well".

Who of all the people that have
already 3D printed

has thought about printing clothes?

Ok, about 10 people have thought
about that.

Our next speaker, Rebekka,

will tell you why it might not be the
best idea to 3D print clothes.

On the internet and especially
Twitter, Rebekka is known

by her nickname Kurfuerstin

and she is a clothing technician. Her
research includes

traditional apparel production, she has
worked in a fashion company,

at the theater and at a tv show.

Also, she is researching innovative
techniques such as 3D printing

and virtual clothing simulation,

meaning software that realistically
simulates clothes

on a virtual avatar.

Have fun with the talk ,
I hope you will learn a lot

and please welcome Rebekka with a
round of applause. Thank you.

applause

Speaker Rebekka/Kurfuerstin: I just
received some mail really quick,

but that won't stop me from giving
my talk. Welcome,

nice to see you all here, in this hall
and on the live stream and...

additional mail, okay, a lot happening
on this stage. I will maybe read that later,

but it is great to know that the
post office system works!

The title of my talk is "Why 3D printing
clothes is not the future".

It will be about the properties of
3D printed clothes and

what would need to happen in order
for it to be a serious alternative

for everyday wear. I was just introduced
as a clothing technician.

In case you don't know what this strange
combination of words means,

clothes and technology, a short
explanation.

When clothes are made, at one side,
you have the design, the idea.

But the realization, the production,
happens somewhere else entirely

and by some other person.

In a simplified way, a person creates
the design for a dress

and says: I designed this dress.

So they have a nice picture from which
you can learn some information, but not much.

And they go to a factory and say: please make this dress.

The production will kindly ask: where is the table of information?

Because the production site wants to have all the information about the dress.

And the designer then asks: what?
And the production then asks: what?

And that would be the end of it.

Because the factory wants to know,
which fabric do we need for the dress,

and how much? Which sizes will be made, and
how many dresses in which sizes?

Which machines do we need for that, what
text will be on the care instruction labels

and what will be the exact position of the
labels on the side seam in cm?

All those questions cannot be answered
by the illustration of the dress.

And that is where clothing technology comes in,
as the intersection between design and production.

It's about the technical feasibility and

what needs to be done
to manufacture clothes.

It's about materials, quality,
prices and locations.

Where should the production take place,
and when?

All these questions need answers
and that is the responsibility

of clothing technicians. And this kind
of reality check,

the perspective of feasibility, is the perspective
I also chose to examine 3D printing.

If you search for the words "3D print" and
"clothes", you will get headlines like these.

For example: 3D printing will bring
flexibility into the fashion industry.

Or: The fashion of the future. Or: Will the
street wear of the future be 3D printed?

Or: Can 3D printing fundamentally
change the fashion industry?

A few years ago, the headlines were
even more sensational.

They were predicting that by 2020, we
would print a sweater in the morning,

melt it down in the evening and then
print a new one the next day.

Nowadays, the predictions have
become a bit more careful,

at least with a question mark at the end.

But even from these headlines,
you get the sense that something

will fundamentally change the
fashion industry.

There is also the hope of a sustainable production

with the argument, that the procedure of 3D printing is sustainable.

Sustainability is a major topic in the fashion industry.

The question is if 3D printing might be the solution.

Clothes have already been 3D printed,

it's not even that new or unrealistic.

There are entire 3D printed collections and I will show some examples now.

In Israel, Danit Peleg printed her entire final collection of five outfits.

One example is the two piece outfit on the right, a top and a floor length skirt.

The skirt has been printed using only desktop printers,

meaning that it consists of modules of A4 size

that have been connected afterwards.

It is flexibel, because it was printed with a flexible filament,

but also because it made up of a zigzag structure

that allows for it to pull on it.

If you pull it up, it bounces up and down.

The jacket is the first 3D printed ready-to-wear

article of clothing that you can order online,

in limited edition of 100 pieces.

It costs 1500 $.

You can choose the color and some writing on the back

and then the jacket will be printed in 100 hours.

Another example is from the design collective Nervous System,

who have developed the Kinematics System.

It consists of triangles that are connected by hinges,

making the whole structure flexible.

But it is made of a hard material. It can move, but it is not elastic

and it rattles a bit when you move.

They also developed an opaque version.
The dress on the right is based on the same triangle structure,

but there are some kind of petals on top of it.

So the dress is opaque.

A third example is the Pangolin Dress

which is also made of a structure of interlocked modules

that can move on top of and into each other,

thus making the structure flexible.

You can move in the dress and the dress adjusts to your movements.

One of the people working on it is Travis Fitch, a designer working in New York.

I contacted Travis and said:
I am a clothing technician, I love numbers.

How do you know if a newly developed structure is suitable for a dress?

How do you know if the elasticity is high enough

to use it in a piece of clothing?

Do you do laboratory tests?

And he answered, well, I pull at it and then I either say it is okay or not.

So the clothing technician in me came through and said,

well how about numbers?

So I offered to test some of his structures, to conduct some laboratory experiments

in order to
examine how the properties can be expressed in numbers and units.

Those were only three examples.
There are many more

on catwalks and in fashion shows. It is clear that those examples are not everyday wear.

They are special made-to-order products,

it takes months to create them,

they consist of 300 different pieces that need to be assembled.

But the headlines about fundamentally changing the fashion industry

are about everyday wear.

Custom-made items on a catwalk do not change the whole industry.

Something needs to happen before that applies to everyday wear.

That is why I ask, what kind of properties do clothes need to have

in order to be everyday wear, meaning clothes

that we can wear every day and for every occasion?

First of all, clothes need to be comfortable.

There are four aspects of wearing comfort.

First, the psychological wearing comfort which is about fashion trends,

societal norms and individuality.

The fact that I am standing here in a t-shirt and a hoodie

is particularly apt for this congress.

On another business conference I might have worn something different.

And that people are driving around in onesies and goose costumes

is also very specific for this group right here.
laughter

What I mean by this is that people feel comfortable wearing this in this specific context

and might not feel at ease in another context,

although the clothes themselves have not changed.

That is the psychological wearing comfort.

The next-to-skin-comfort is about the feeling of something on the skin.

Surfaces can be soft or scratchy, they can also cause allergies.

So it is about the direct contact on the skin.

The physiological wearing comfort is very important as well.

It's about the climate control of the body and about how clothes can keep us warm but also allow for moisture to evaporate.

The human body has this amazing system of protecting us from overheating.

We start to sweat and the moisture evaporates.

But the evaporation has to happen through the fabric of our clothes.

Some clothes allow for better evaporation than others.

This aspect is incredibly important for our comfort when wearing clothes.

The fourth aspect is the ergonomical wearing comfort

which is about freedom of movement and that is what I examined in detail.

Freedom of movement in clothes is achieved by the fit of a piece of clothing,

mainly meaning how tight it is on the body.

Secondly, it is achieved by the elasticity of the materials used.

This is very important because there are parts of our body where we need 50% stretching,

for example at our knees and elbows.

If you move your arm like this, then the clothes need to allow this movement

without tearing apart. Without elasticity, the sleeve would be destroyed

or would change its form and create buckles.

So we need a material with the capability to rebound.

After we have moved the arm like this, the sleeve at the elbow

will go back to its original shape.

So if a material is not elastic, it is not that suitable for clothes.

It is possible, but then it needs to be compensated by the cut of the clothes,

in that case, it cannot be too tight. If a piece of clothing is loose fit,

the elasticity of the fabric is not that important.

I wanted to examine the influencing factors on the elastic properties

of 3D printed structures in order to actively influence the elasticity.

This could be used to enhance the wearing comfort of 3D printed clothes

and thereby get us a bit closer to 3D printed everyday wear.

Elasticity in textile structures, fabrics, is achieved by two aspects.

First, a material itself can be elastic. In fabrics, this is mostly elastane.

Elastane can be stretched 300% and will return to its original length.

It is used in a majority of clothes,

mostly in the ratio 98% cotton and 2% elastane.

2% are enough to make a shirt elastic enough to easily put it on

while at the same time being tight and not starting to buckle after wearing.

The second possibility is structural elasticity.

In clothing, this is mainly achieved by creating knitwear.

If you pull at knitwear, the loops will change their shape.

In this manner, you can create an elastic structure, even with materials with low elasticity.

For example, cotton fibers are not very elastic.

But if you create a knitwear made of cotton threads, the fabric can be very flexible and elastic.

In 3D printed structures, an elastic material can be used as well, for example TPU.

TPU is short for thermoplastic polyurethane. Polyurethane is a primary part of elastane, too.

So TPU and elastane have very similar properties based on their chemical composition.

Structural elasticity is also possible. It is possible to print meshes,

but you can also create different shapes like curves, arches, helices or springs.

In short, shapes that you can compress or pull at,

so that you will first pull at the structure before pulling at the material itself.

However, the design depends on the printing method.

There are several different methods and not all of them are equally suited to create certain shapes.

For my studies, I focused on two of them.

First, the FLM, short for fused layer modeling, sometimes also called FDM,

short for fused deposition modeling.

You heat a thermoplastic filament and push it through a nozzle

that lays the strand of material on the printing bed.

All layers on top of each other shape the object.

If an object has an overhang like the shape on the left,

you need support structures.

In every layer, the extruder will also build the supporting columns.

When the object is finished, the support structures can be removed.

This is not a problem for hard materials, you can easily break it off and sand the surface.

But for elastic materials, it's a different situation.

If you pull at it, it will not break off, but simply stretch.

So if you want to print elastic shapes with overhangs or interlockings,

this method is not recommended.

The support structures would habe to be cut off with scissors,

so that would take a long time.

Interjection: Water soluble support structures!

Speaker: Yes, good idea, unfortunately that does not work for TPU yet.

Waterbased support structures are usually made of PVA.

But the melting temperatures of PVA and TPU do not match.

TPU requires a very high temperature, I printed with 215°C.

At this temeprature, PVA is already decomposing, its melting temperature is lower.

So it is a good idea, but at the moment it does not work yet.

I am sure that something will be developed to solve this problem, though.

The other method is SLS, short for selective laser sintering.

An entire layer of powder is laid on the build plate.

A laser melts the fine grain powder in order to create the desired shape layer by layer.

In this case, the powder itself is the support structure, so you do not need to print

supporting columns. In the end, the entire printer is filled with a block of powder

and somewhere in there, the object can be found.

The powder is removed and can be reused.

For my studies, I examined several structures.

The ones on the left and in the middle are created from powder.

So it was possible to create some height and chain-like shapes.

I had different sizes. The smaller size is much more flexible,

you can easily move it and fold it.

The modules can be shifted into each other.

You can compress it and pull at it and the structure is very flexible.

As I said, for the other 3D printing method, the possibilities in shape were limited.

This structure is based on a pattern of rhombs that was extruded.

If you pull at it, the shape of the rhomb changes

before the material itself is strained.

Again, I had different variations in size and height

in order to examine the influencing factors on the elastic properties.

How can you examine elastic properties at all?

With a so-called tensile test.

You don't test a piece of clothing, you only test a fabric swatch.

The swatch is clamped into a tensile test machine which then pulls with constant velocity.

The corresponding software automatically creates a diagram like the one on the right.

It shows the elongation in %, meaning how long the fabric swatch has been stretched,

and on the other axis the tensile strength in N,

meaning how much strength is needed in order to achieve this elongation of the fabric swatch.

This diagram shows the elongation, the elasticity and the tensile strength.

I need to stress that elongation and elasticity is not the same.

You can stretch something and it might have just gotten longer.

If I stretch something and it returns to its original length, it is elastic.

So that is a different property,

which you can also gather from the stress-elongation-diagram.

I tested all of my structures this way.

Of course, you need to test several specimen in order to generate average values.

So I had my numbers and units. But what do I do with that?

I still need to know if these numbers are good or bad.

There is a recommendation by the Dialog Textil Bekleidung in coperation with the German Fashion Mode Verband,

It is not a standard or a law, clothes do not have to have these properties.

But it is a recommendation, what stretch properties clothing should approximately have

and what kind of forces they should withstand.

This is a small extract. It is divided by products,

so trousers and skirts have different specifications opposed to underwear.

If it is far from the body, meaning loose fit, lower tensile strengths suffice.

If a piece of clothing is loose fit, the stretching properties are not that important.

So I compared these numbers to mine and I found

that the elongations of my structures were great.

But the maximum force was not reached.

So I can stretch my structures just fine,

but I do not need a lot of force to tear them apart and that is a bad result.

If I bend my elbow and the sleeve is destroyed,

I do not want to use this structure for clothes.

So the tensile strength of the 3D printed structures is lower

than the recommended properties for clothes.

I also wanted to examine the influencing factors on the elastic properties.

From my results, I could see that the size of the modules has an influence on the properties.

The larger sizes show higher values than the smaller variations.

However, the larger variations do not feel and move like fabric.

The smaller variations are more fabric-like,

but they didn't show very good tensile strengths.

Aside from that, there was another influencing factor, the slicing software.

The slicing software has two main tasks.

Firstly, it slices the object into layers. Secondly, it transfers the information to the 3D printer,

where the extruder has to be in order to create the shape of each layer.

For example, if you want to print a vase like the one on the left,

the first layer would be filled completeley, because we want to fill the vase with water and it should not leak.

The path of the extruder could look like this, it would go in rows

from one side to the other in order to completely fill the circle.

The second layer would be a ring and the extruder might

take a path like this, but a different path is also possible.

There are many different slicing programs and with many setting options.

I took a closer look and I found that the extruder

took a very specific path for my rhomb structures.

It went to the intersection and then turned around.

Under the microscope, you can see that this is exactly the place where the structure was torn apart.

The extruder did not cross the intersection even once.

At this point, the strands of material are only connected when a new,

hot strand melts a little bit into the other, already cold one.

But due to the fact that the extruder did not cross the intersection,

it created a predetermined breaking point. And that is exactly where the structure was torn apart.

In another variation that was based on the same shape,

the slicing software decided something else. The extruder took the path to the bending point of the rhomb.

Consequently, this is the point where it was torn apart.

That is why the test samples look differently after the tensile test.

That also explains the low tensile strength of the structures.

The tensile test machine did not pull at the material as much as at these connection points

and depending on how strong these are, the structure can be torn apart easily.

This means that the method itself limits the tensile strength.

Now, I tested eight different structures, eight different variations.

You might ask now how I came to the conclusion that 3D printing clothes

is not recommended in general.

Maybe a different structure would show a higher tensile strength.

Yes, maybe. But the method itself creates limitations concerning the properties.

We have to go deeper and look at the molecules.

Textile fibers naturally have a very high tensile strength.

On the inside, natural fibers like cotton, wool or linen show a regular

arrangement of molecular chains.

There are amorphous parts and crystalline parts.

The strands that you can see on the right depict molecular chains.

The amorphous parts where they are tangled like a plate of spaghetti are not stable.

The crystalline parts where they show a regular arrangement are stable.

Natural fibers show a high degree of crystalline parts which translates

to a high tensile strength. Fibers naturally show higher tensile strengths

than my 3D printed structures could ever have.

And for synthetic fibers, there are measures we can take to even influence

and increase the tensile strength.

There are several ways to spin a fiber, at least one of them is very similar to 3D printing.

You melt synthetic material and press it through a nozzle.

The difference is that you have several possibilities to influence the property

of the extruded strand or fiber.

The degree of crystallinity depends on the rate of controlled cooling.

The slower a fiber cools off the more time do the molecular chains have

to arrange themselves regularly.

That is why the spinning chambers are really hot

in order to allow for a very slow rate of controlled cooling

so that the fibers show high degrees of crystallinity, resulting in high tensile strengths.

We do not have this opportunity in 3D printing.

We can use a heated build plate. But that only influences the first few layers.

Besides, we need the printed strands to cool off quickly so that they keep their shape.

We can only print the next layer if the layer underneath has already hardened.

We cannot keep a constant high temperature like we can in the spinning chamber.

The SLS method allows for better conditions

concerning the tensile strength and the structures did show better values.

We have a second possibility to increase the tensile strength of synthetic fibers

which is by stretching them.

After spinning, the fibers are guided through cylinders and subjected to tensile forces.

This increases the degree of crystallinity even more.

The molecules are forced to align even more.

This decreases the fiber diameter and makes the fiber more fine, more soft

and at the same time stronger.

That explains why textile fibers have much higher tensile strengths

while at the same time being much finer than anything you can 3D print at the moment.

Furthermore, textile fibers have the advantageous capability of warming us by isolating air.

Every little chamber that can entrap air turns a fabric into a warming structure

when worn on the body. Fabrics consist of threads

and threads consist of fibers,

as you can see on this microscope picture.

It's not a picture of a carpet, it's fabric

and the little single fibers would not be visible with the naked eye.

The distances between the fibers isolate air.

At the same time, the gaps are important for the transportation of moisture.

Sweat can evaporate and go through the fabric.

In conclusion, fabrics can warm us and at the same time protect us against overheating.

At the moment, we cannot 3D print such fine miniature fibers.

We are still quite limited when it comes to fineness. We cannot efficiently 3D print chambers to entrap air

like the ones we can find in fabrics made of textile fibers.

Some things cannot be done yet in 3D printing.

But what can we do in 3D printing instead? We have an immense freedom of design that can be applied mostly in shoes

and accessories, for example bracelets, necklaces or glasses.

The benefits can be used for costumes.

For example, in the movie "Black Panther", several crowns were 3D printed.

Theoretically, the process is sustainable, just because it is additive manufacturing.

Material is only built where it is needed for the desired shape.

This is in stark contrast to the production of clothes.

When you cut the fabric, you can achieve a utilization ratio of maybe 90%.

Just because pattern pieces have many different shapes,

10% of the fabric is thrown away.

3D printing is more sustainable in this aspect.

Also, the materials can be reused. Recycling is another problem in the fashion industry.

So it is a good thing that you can reuse the powder after printing.

3D printing is also very suitable for made-to-order production.

In the fashion industry, made-to-order items always lead to high costs.

Also, it is possible to create different material properties in the same product.

When I have the shoulder and want it to be a bit more firm,

I can already prepare that in the 3D model.

I can decide to create more layers. If I created the same piece of clothing in fabric,

I would need to have a seam, I would reinforce it with another fabric

or another layer of fabric. Using a 3D printer, this could happen in the same step.

Theoretically, it is also possible to integrate additional functions like cables,

LED or sensors.

There is still a question mark behind that.

First of all, this would not be everyday wear,

and secondly, this is not state of the art yet.

Another benefit might be to create the whole garment piece in one step.

Right now, a fabric is created out of threads out of textile fibers.

Then, the fabric needs to be cut, the pieces need to be sewn together,

maybe it is dyed after that. Different processes, executed at different locations.

With 3D printing, everything could happen in the same step.

But only if the garment can fit into the build volume of a printer.

If we print A4 sized pieces and assemble them afterwards,

we are still in the same situation of having to connect many pieces.

The software developed by Nervous System is a smarter solution.

The software digitally folds the dress. The dress is then printed in the folded state,

significantly reducing the needed build volume.

The dress is then hidden somewhere in the block of powder.

The powder is removed, a bit like in archeology,

the dress will get cleaned off and opened.

This is a good option to really use the benefits of 3D printing.

The disadvantages or challenges are the insufficient tensile strength

resulting from the process itself and there is not a lot we can do about it.

We are still very limited in terms of fineness.

The standard nozzle diameter is 0.4 millimeters. Fiber diameters are more in the micrometer range.

That is a significant difference. The fineness is very important for the next-to-skin-comfort,

for the transportation of moisture and for the capability to warm us.

This is fundamental and without it, the aspects of wearing comfort

cannot be guaranteed when we 3D print textile structures.

Time and costs are still quite probematic in 3D printing.

It takes af long time and it is very expensive.

Again, this is not suitable for everyday wear, only for individual pieces.

We also still have to discuss care instructions.

Can you wash a 3D printed garment at all? If I wear a piece of clothing every day,

I want to be able to wash it.

When we talk about garments, we also need to talk about fastenings,

you need to somehow get inside the piece of clothing.

So, zippers, buttons, hooks, eyelets, all of this needs to be thought of

if we want to print everything in one piece.

In conclusion, the construction of fabrics made from threads made from fibers

is still unbeatable in regards of wearing comfort.

There are not yet applicable solutions to imitate the properties in 3D printing.

At the current state of the art, 3D printed clothes are not only not the future,

they aren't even the present.

Because the present means fabrics made of textile fibers and that works really well for our wearing comfort.

3D printed structure cannot provide that yet.

That does not mean that we should stop the research.

Whoever said before that they had success when printing clothes,

I am very interested to hear about that.

Maybe there are some aspects that I have not thought about.

But we should not forget the basic function of clothes. The 3D printed clothes that I showed in the beginning,

those are amazing artworks and I love them and I want to see more of them.

But I want to remind everyone that clothes should warm us, that in general,

it should be opaque and that the climate exchange and the transportation of moisture

has to be guaranteed. I find it a bit difficult to put so much hope on 3D printing

to fundamentally change the whole fashion industry.

Because the fashion industry has a lot of serious problems, ecological,

but also social and societal problems.

But I don't think we should simply hope to develop new technologies

and tell us that the sustainability probem can be solved by 3D printing

all of our clothes. Please conduct further research.

But please don't forget the basic functions of clothes and do not think

that a new technology will solve all the problems of the fashion industry.

I advise everyone to revolutionize the fashion industry.

But please do not think that 3D printing is the universal solution for that.

And now I am finished with my presentation and I thank you all for listening.

applause

Herald Angel Noujoum: Yes, thank you, that was quite a precision landing,

I'm afraid we don't have time left for questions, I am sorry to all the people flocking to the microphones right now.

But you can see here where you can talk to Rebekka,

you can find her and ask her questions on Twitter under @Kurfuerstin.

You can also talk to her right now after the talk.

Maybe not right here, but somewhere in the back.
She also needs to read her post cards. I'm sure there will be time

and the possibility to talk to her or each other about 3D printing

and 3D printed clothes. Please give another round of applause

applause

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