Fashion Designer looking to integrate 3d printed textiles

Hello,I'm new to everything here, I've been watching videos on different machines for the last two weeks or so. As you all know there are tons of machines on the market, but what really gets me is that all of them have a small build area, usually around 200Mx200Mx200M. The idea I have in mind is to make singular flat pieces using flexible filaments. Now at most these panels should be around 30Inches long. I was wondering if you could start a print, and move the bottom edge of the design to the top of the print bed, and continue your design? (That could also be done in reverse, pushing the design down, and continuing from the top)

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Originally Posted by Skel

Hello,I'm new to everything here, I've been watching videos on different machines for the last two weeks or so. As you all know there are tons of machines on the market, but what really gets me is that all of them have a small build area, usually around 200Mx200Mx200M. The idea I have in mind is to make singular flat pieces using flexible filaments. Now at most these panels should be around 30Inches long. I was wondering if you could start a print, and move the bottom edge of the design to the top of the print bed, and continue your design? (That could also be done in reverse, pushing the design down, and continuing from the top)

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Did you check some Fashion designing companies, might be they provide this kind of service

@SKel. The Creality CR30 print mill does just that printing on a sort of conveyor belt.

Yep s gambo says, you should look at belt printers.
There are a few on the market, but currently I believe the creality printmill is the cheapest.
Unfortunately it;s also the one least suited to printing flexible filaments as it;s the onle one that uses a bowden tube on it's extruder.

That said, pretty much the first thing I;d do if I got a printmill would be to convert it to a direct drive extrduder.
As it's the only real issue I can see with the machine.

I think for extended print runs with thin flexible parts you'd also probably need to fit some sort of scraper/removal device as - by it's nature - flexible filament, thin sheets particularly, woud just curl under the belt and jam the underside.

You'd probably need to have a thick, sacrificial, leading edge that would peel off and then put a flat scraper beneath it as the rest peeled off.

Given how very very slowly this would all be happening - it would be pretty easy to do :-)

Yes you can make the print in vertical sheets (kind of like a sine wave) - however, you need to bear in mind that thin sheets of flexible material will not stand up easily by themselves.

Couple of ways you could do it.
1) use easy to remove support columns to stiffen the vertical sheets.
2) use an IDEX (printer with two independantly moving extruders) machine and bond the flexible material to a much stiffer soluble suppoort material.
So you'd just remove the whole thing pop it in a bath of warm water and dissolve the support material.

However using that method you also have to remember that the flexible sheet will keep the bends at the top and bottom.
I 'think' if you put it in hotwater you could probably straighten the sheets out permamently.
Haven't tried, but with tpu it will probably reset the fixed structure at around 70-80c

Basically the structure of plastic is malleable with temperature. It's - after all - what the word 'plastic' means.
So if you het it to the point just below where it begins to liquefy (glass point) you can usually change the shape and the nw shape will set in place when it cools down.

The other thing to bear in mind, is the sheer non-speed of printing flexible filaments.

Anything of the size you are talking about will have the printing time measured in days, not hours.

So for the odd bespoke garment it might be okay, but for a regular small to medium run - probably not so much.

The thing about the current state of 3d printing is that while it absolutely can do lots of truly amazing things - very few of them are as easy as you would like the process to be.
It's definitely not plug and play - yet.