Drape of Composite Structures Made of Textile and 3D Printed Geometries

Abstract

Applications of 3D printing in the fashion industry have continued to attract interest from academia and industry in order to improve and add functionalities to products. Among these applications, an interesting one is 3D printing on textile fabric. Composite structures created by 3D printing and textile fabric change a drape by improving or worsening its appearance. The scope of this work is to evaluate the effect of various 3D printed geometries on textile fabric regarding fabric drapes. The drape coefficient of the created composite structure is evaluated using a drape tester built according to EN ISO 9073-9. The results taken are compared with an algorithm developed for determining drape parameters and 3D form representation using color digital images and their image histograms. The measured values of the drape coefficient are close, with a minimal difference, up to 4%. The 3D printed patterns show a significant effect on the drape coefficient of textile fabrics by depicting another way to modify fabric drapes and create complex shapes by using less material. This can be seen as an advantage in the fashion industry where complex geometries can be added to textile fabrics, while changing fabric drape and product personalization and adding functionalities for garments and technical textiles.