Auxetic structures from 3D printed hybrid textiles

Abstract

Auxetic structures have been produced using 3D printing and knitted textile materials. A review of other auxetic textiles is presented along with the new materials. A range of configurations were developed, prototyped, and tested to demonstrate significant auxetic response, including Poisson’s ratio up to negative one. The concept of 4D textiles was employed to create environmentally responsive hinges in some structures, allowing the material to change shape in response to thermal stimulus.

Direct-print thermally responsive 4D textiles by depositing PLA on prestretched fabrics

“…For example, Leist et al (2017) printed polylactic acid (PLA) on unstretched nylon fabric to create smart textile concepts that can be thermo-mechanical programmed to form temporary shapes and recover their permanent shapes upon heating. Shajoo et al (2021) used a stretched knit fabric as the textile substrate and a bilayer structure consisting of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and PLA as the control layer to construct a 4D textile that can adjust breathability by releasing prestretching force or changing temperature. In addition to self-forming in a controlled manner, this type of 4D textile establishes a link between the material and the thermal environment, which is facilitating the creation of an intelligent human–material–environment interaction system (An et al , 2018; Jeong et al , 2019; Wang et al , 2018).…”