Fabrication and measurement of 3D printed retroreflective fibers

Additive manufacturing enables new fiber preform geometries to be built that were either impossible or extremely difficult with traditional subtractive manufacturing methods. Additionally fiber thermal drawing is undergoing an explosion of interest due to new materials and fiber functions. We fabricate a retroreflective fiber that possesses a complex cross-section and material combination not achievable with other textile fiber fabrication methods such melt extrusion. This is the first such 3D-printing-derived fiber to demonstrate optical scattering properties with a non-circular, non-convex cross-section.