3D Printing Onto Fabrics

Updated 03 February 2021

One of the swell things about 3D printers is being able to lay fabric onto a build plate and create components directly on top of or embedded with fabric material through them. This lets you easily sew designs onto clothes or create interesting scale and armour surfaces. Really cool when you move them and capable of wrapping around uneven surfaces (like the human body). You can even create interesting LED light diffusers that sit directly on-top of LEDs which still allow the led strips freedom of movement and easy and quick to install. 3D printed components with certain fabrics embedded would improve the strength of the total piece in the direction of the fabric fibres. If you were brave you could embed multiple layers of kevlar or carbon fibre into your 3D prints and done well this would drastically improve the strength of your components.

There are several factors worth keeping on top of if you ever find yourself doing something similar so to save yourself running into problems like me here is a swell guide put together to save you time. Contents of this guide can be seen below.

What You Need
Process
How to Avoid Issues
Interesting Further Ideas

A crucial part of this process is having great initial adhesion of the first layers to the print platform. A great guide Printing Perfect First Layers is definitely worth checking out that address this directly. Another great guide is Improving 3D Printed Models which will enable you to get the best result out of your 3D printer.

As always if you have got any questions, queries or things you'd like to see added please let us know your thoughts!


What You NeedTulle fabric

Below is a list of everything you will need to 3D print models with fabric embedded inside.

- Temperature Resistance, Porous, Stiff and Thin Fabric. Enough of it so it can fit across the whole print platform. Tulle is the fabric I have been using which is often used to make wedding veils. Poly-cotton also gives swell results. The more porous the better as it will embedd better.

- 3D fused filament fabrication Printer

- Bulldog or Binder Clips 

- Masking Tape or Gaffa Tape (for places the clips cannot fit)


Process

Start your print with the models you want to have fabric embedded into. Make sure the initial layer sticks very well to the bed surface, Printing Perfect First Layers is an excellent guide to check out in regards to this. Then once the layers have built up 2mm high pause the print. This you can see in the image below with an Ultimaker 3 paused with the first layers of the print on it which I will embed fabric inside it.

Ultimaker 3 With First layers properly adhered

 

Then lay the fabric over the entire print bed and secure with bulldog clips. This you can see in the images below with the Ultimaker 3 on the left and the Ultimaker S5 3D Printer on the right (the components on the S5 are see-through and thus tough to see).

Fabric Laid on build plate with Fabric

 

Then make sure that the fabric is completely flat across the surface of the build platform. If the nozzle or any dribble from out of the nozzle catches the fabric it’ll either rip up the fabric or pull the components off the surface. Once doing this resume the print, you can see the Ultimaker 3 resuming printing below. 

Resuming!

 

Then once the nozzles are re-heated the printer will continue printing as normal. See below for an image on the left of the Ultimaker 3 printing the first couple of layers and on the right the Ultimaker S5 Printing the first couple of layers directly onto the fabric. 

Printing first layers onto the fabric

 

Below you can see an image of the Ultimaker 3 print further along in this process.

Ultimaker 3 Further along in the process. Wish I was paying attention for the Ultimaker S5...

 

As the fabric is chosen has a lot of holes most of the printed material ends up joining up like normal and any of the extrusion that hits the fabric will embed it into the material. The connection is remarkably strong and sturdy. Much better than supergluing the surface of the component onto fabric. See below for fabric embedded by the Ultimaker 3 on the right and the Ultimaker S5 on the right. These show very clearly the fabric embedded inside the transparent material. Personally, I quite like the aesthetic effect that fabric produces when it is embedded in transparent material like this.

Niceeee looking!


How to Avoid Issues

Below is a list of important steps to avoid any problems when you start 3D printing this way.

- Ensure the mesh is completely locked down on the build plate and won’t spring up. Better off utilising Bulldog clips but some build plates in some orientations this is not an option. In those scenarios using masking tape is a possibility. Make sure to check on the tape multiple times throughout the print. Masking tape is liable for falling off particularly when the surface it is trying to stick to is warm (which the underneath of the build platform definitely is). Also, do not overlay too many layers of tape, 3D printers are hot and a fire hazard particularly when you are introducing foreign substances into the setup.  

- Keep a watchful eye on the print and nozzle particularly when you initially lay down the fabric and resume the print. The nozzle will be travelling very close to the fabric mesh and this is when it is most likely to snag.

- Make sure your retraction and coasting settings are optimal. The last thing you want is the fabric material lifting up because dribbled filament from nozzle has snagged and pulled it off. If this happens the best scenario is it will snag and cause a layer shift and justify the end of your print.

- Bulldog clips can be in the way of the print head during travel moves. It is a good idea to keep all the models being printed in the middle of the build plate to avoid the nozzle (or second nozzle if you have a dual extruder) clipping the bulldog clips. Also when the bulldog clip is where it is meant to be and doing the job of holding down the mesh correctly pull the handles off or fold them over to lower their profile.


Interesting Further Ideas

Improving Strength by embedding fabric particularly when using Kevlar or Carbon Fibre is definitely a potential avenue worth pursuing. More on this soon!

Furthermore, I love the idea of creating easy to sew badges or clothing/bag style icons/nick-nacks that you can use give rad style and quickly individualise your bag making identification a breeze. Below is a number of 3D printed skulls I created doing just this. I did have some issues with bed adhesion with the large skull as on one side of the jaw pulled up from the bed which made for an emotional rollercoaster of a print. The skull and jaw were two separate models for that style of the skull.

Nick-nacks!
 

Some of these skulls had separate jaws but because they were printed onto fabric they become connected in place but still able to open and close their mouths. Nice way to add some movement to your prints, my ventriloquist skills would need to be started if I will continue down this route though. Below shows two different shots of a single skull with its mouth opening and closing, spooky.

Quick one two shot
 

I have also learned that you can alter the initial layer amount, lay down thin fabric and melt the filament directly onto the surface of the material saving you the need to stop and start the print. This will be less embedded and I reckon could severely affect the build platform adhesion. But I will link an interesting video by CloakFiend which shows this done with tulle fabric and poly-cotton. Another rad video to check out is by Amie DD who has been printing fabric with lego connections so she could connect lego bricks to her clothes. Very swell idea. 

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