Main description (English)

3D or three-dimensional printing is a technique for creating three-dimensional objects in which a computer-designed object is created by adding material layer by layer. This technique is used in fields such as medicine, architecture, design, etc., including in the design of textiles and surfaces. The process of creating three-dimensionally printed textile structures differs from traditional notions of textile as a product obtained by weaving, knitting, etc. fibres of vegetable, animal, synthetic or other origin. The materials used for 3D printing are predominantly synthetic polymers and some types of natural polymers, which allow the creation of hard-to-the-touch surfaces and textile structures. These and other features of 3D printing are simultaneously challenges and a tool for creating surfaces and textiles with alternative aesthetics and functionality. There is a variety of design approaches for the creation of textile structures using 3D printing, e.g. the imitating of traditional textile structures such as weave and knit; or creation of structures composed of connected elements similar to the historic metal chain mail. Another approach is the creation of structured sheet surfaces of different thicknesses, whose structure changes with movement and thus provides elasticity and flexibility characteristic of textiles. To bring the three-dimensionally printed “textile” closer to the feel of traditional textiles, the two can be combined by 3D printing of two- and three-dimensional patterns, structures and elements onto traditional textiles. This review of the current tendencies aims to analyse the relationship between material, structure, function and aesthetics in the design of textiles and surfaces using the 3D printing technique. The basic systematisation and classification of strategies for the creation of textile-like feel of thus created surfaces reveals various approaches to transform otherwise hard-to-the-touch materials into flexible and almost “soft”, “liquid” structures.