Thermoplastics 3D Printing Using Fused Deposition Modeling on Fabrics

The creation of large objects by additive manufacturing is something that is desired, but often is unachievable due to the size of the object and capacity of the 3D printer used. To address this issue various techniques on part segmentation have been implemented, including origami, geometric segmentation, and segmentation with manufacturability. However, joining or connecting those segmented or discretized additive manufactured parts can be an issue. In this paper we propose to use fabric as a flexible joint and segment carrier when creating larger objects by additive manufacturing. Specifically, flat simply segmented parts of the desired large object will be additive manufactured on top of a fabric as to adhere the two. Three different fabrics, cotton duck cloth, acrylic-dyed and ripstop, were considered to investigate the interfacial strength with 3D printed PLA. Both treated and untreated fabrics are prepared simultaneously so that parts can be printed on top of them at a predefined spatial location. After the fabrication of segments, adhesion force between the segment and the fabrics are tested with mechanical adhesion tests. We found that untreated cotton duck cloth had an average 78% higher adhesion than other samples. When glue was used to treat fabric before printing a weaker bond between the tri-layer, fabric-glue-PLA sandwich was observed comparative to untreated fabrics. The interfacial strength of 3D printed part printed on fabric can be enhanced by changing print parameters, fiber morphology and fabric properties, and surface modification of fabrics. In this work the fiber morphology and fabric properties show significant impact on the interfacial strength. Adhesion forces desired between fabric and 3D printed part can be tailored per specific large object as needed, per segmentation, using this information. The proposed method can help with the fabrication of multifaceted single objects with localized optimum process parameters which can address the directional anisotropic nature of AM parts and corresponding non-homogeneous performance.