Flexible Earth-Fiber Structures in 3D Printing

3D printing has been shown to offer greater geometrical accuracy and production efficiency for textile and fabric-like structures. However, current 3D printed textiles have been exploring 3-dimensionality of lattice flexibility, mostly using petroleum-based material mixtures such as PLA (polylactic acid). Natural earth- and bio-based materials are minimally processed and use natural substances that may mitigate carbon intensities by reducing the amount of thermal and chemical processing. Specifically, with earth-based materials as an emerging research direction in additive manufacturing, deposited layers of material can create lattice objects. This paper presents a novel development that uses earth-fiber mix designs to create digital techniques for 3D printable flexible structures. Using a range of patterns and geometries, the 3D printed textiles were designed to exhibit a range of densities and patterns. Geometrical tectonics were applied using the mechanism of weaving (wefting and warping) to the different iterations that were created in this research. Material mix-designs were shown to heavily influence the resulting performance of the fabric. The findings demonstrate the capability of producing flexible soil-fiber flexible structures with characteristics akin to traditional knitted textiles, emphasizing promising prospects for further advancement and practical application of natural materials into architectural and wearable artifacts.