Hello, Everyone, I am fashion designer, I want to explore 3D print for my collection. I am new in this area and short of useful imformation. Attached is a piece of garment made of PVC material(vinyl fabric). I wonder if 3D printer could make this happen?
Any suggestion? Any one provide this kind of service?
Hey Rebecca, thanks for reaching out to Talk! @XYZWorkshop in Melbourne have quite an extensive experience in 3D fashion, so maybe they might be able to help.
Otherwise, the 3D Hubs Mayor of Boston has organised few events focused on 3D printing and fashion. @Paulina do you have any recommendations for Rebecca?
I think it is possible to approach this by using FDM printing translucent flexible filament layer 50 micron to a thickness of 150/200 microns. I am willing to take the experience for you ^^
It is the command of the filament today and I did the test with a sheet.
It would be boring to work design in the manner of Origami.
Hi @rebeccahe, I’d be happy to chat with you about 3d printing fashion and ways you can get started (collaborations are definitely a great way to go). One thing to think about is that 3d printing allows for a new way of making new things - if you are just looking to replicate something you can already make using conventional materials, this is probably not the easiest/cheapest approach to do so. However, if you are looking to make something unique, 3d printing can definitely be a great tool, and a lot can be done with even an FDM printer. Check out my blog, additive fashion, and please feel free to contact me directly boston@3dhubs.com or paulina@additivefashion.com
I’m afraid the choices are very limited. In terms of desktop 3dprinters I think the only one I can think of that comes close is using an SLA 3d printer and using form labs translucent flexible resin.
The print size is a huge constraint, form1 printers are 125mm cube I think. Printing will take a long time to print is sections and you would have to find and adhesive to fix them together.
You perhaps source a large sla printer like the “soliditator” has a 250 mm built volume and use that form1 resin perhaps.
Iris van herpen has done a beautiful water like dress before. Her name has become synonymous with 3d fashion. But I’m afraid she used acrylic sheet and heated it to sculpt the form.
Haven’t heard of a FDM filament that is both flexible and transparent.
For your example image, cause it is essentially a drape, I think it might be far easier to create a pattern and cut an appropriately sourced transparent fabric material.
@Paulina is right, If you go down the 3d printing path it will be very expensive, time consuming and probrably achieve a look that is totally different from your original concept.
I recently wore a 3D printed dress made out of NinjaFlex: both transparent and flexible @XYZWorkshop, would be fantastic to see what you could do with it @rebeccahe, the dress I wore took abut 3 months to create, with a fashion designer working closely with 2 engineers. Hundreds, and hundreds of hours of work/print, and they could only do it because the dress was partially sponsored. This is not to discourage you, but to challenge your thinking about using 3d printing for fashion in a different way.
In the end you’ll want to design them for Nylon SLS printing, since it offers the largest build volume of any system, and is flexible enough to survive wearing. You can even use the flex and design some hook systems for fitting. It’ll also work out to be the cheapest in this large a volume.
However, it won’t work for a clear design.
You could try SLA clear filaments (they’re as a clear as 3d printing can get) but the cost will be massive. It’ll be cheaper to buy a printer and hire someone to run it all day for a month. Logistically it’s unfeasible just for one Look, and you won’t even have the flexibility or strength for it to last long.
FDM printers will give you all sorts of inconsistences. We don’t recommend FDM for any final product unless you want its distinctive texture. The “clear” filaments for FDM are not actually clear but end up being opaque when more than 1 layer thick (0.5mm), and you’ll need to be much thicker so your Look doesn’t fall apart.
Long story short: Can’t do clear.
However, if you want to do 3D printing, then yes you can do so using white nylon in an SLS service. Largest print volume I’ve seen (in the world) is 650*350*550 but you may want multiple parts which click or hook together. Contact me if you want more details.
I believe it is one of the most concerned answers, full of good advices! I simply wanted to add that if there are transparent, colored abs outthere, then aceton smoothing should make then as clear as in the provided sample.