Increasing Adhesion of 3D Printing on Textile Fabrics by Polymer Coating

3D printing is a technology which has recently found its way into the field of textile fabrics, from fashion design to technical textiles. By combining both technologies with their advantages, new composites with novel physical properties can be created. Increasing adhesion between both components, however, still remains challenging. This paper suggests a new method to improve the adhesion of a 3D printed object on a textile fabric by previously coating the latter with a polymer layer. In this way, adhesion can be substantially enhanced without significantly changing the bending stiffness and haptic properties of a fabric. In this study, this procedure worked especially well for printing PLA (poly(lactic acid)) on PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) or PLA coatings, while for printing ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), the best textile coatings were ABS and PLA.