Garment Printing are ready for the launch of 3D Printed Tshirts
(PRWEB UK) 27 February 2015 -- Introducing Electroloom, a 3D printer in development, created by entrepreneur Aaron Rowley of Electroloom. Rowley is aiming for the machine to be the first 3D printer to print clothes, garments and t shirts that are actually comfortable enough to be worn.
The concept is certainly intriguing and has caught the attention of Alternative Apparel, a company known for its comfortable clothing made out of organic cottons and recycled fibres.
The Atlanta-based company has offered a grant to Electroloom, partly due to its focus on sustainable production. “Something we are compelled by is embodied energy, which is the amount of energy that is used to take raw material into a finished good,” said Rowley. A goal of this project is to reduce the amount of embodied energy in an article of clothing.
Although the idea of personalised t shirt 3D printed tshirts is appealing, there’s still a lot of work left for Electroloom. With the machine, the team has so far printed sheets and tubes of polymer fabric. The new grant allows them to pursue more complex shapes like printed T-shirts and fibres related to cotton, but that may be a challenge. Naturally occurring fibres like cottons and furs are more fragile and tend to be easily destroyed during printing. As Electroloom continues to experiment, the company will utilise synthetic materials, or a mixture of natural and synthetic.
As a start, Electroloom will debut basics such as printed T-shirts and printed sweatshirts, with the potential to expand to more complex items, but what Rowley is hoping to establish is an online database with crowdsourced designs. “We think it may also be practical to provide basic templates for T-shirts, beanies, and the like – for users who may not be entirely design savvy,” he said. According to Rowley, the first product by Electroloom is “perhaps a beanie.”
If Electroloom is successful, it could revolutionise the clothing and garment printing industry and Garment Printing are in discussions with other 3D printing companies ready for action. There will be hardly any need to go to a retail shop anymore since anyone who owns a 3D clothes printer could print clothes in their own home or business. Your clothes would be uniquely yours, since you’re able to personalise what you wear. All you would require is a design, a cartridge of material, be it cotton or otherwise, and voila, you will have your very own customised T-shirt printed tshirts with your own unique designs. Who wouldn’t want that? After all, clothes do make the man.
Another company, Appalatch, have similar plans with sustainable printed clothing using 3D printed wool.
The costs and technology will have to move at light speed before it can compete with the prices of screen printing for example on mass production of printed tshirts for promotional purposes. "However the fashion market will have the greatest demand, and at Garment Printing, we have clients from all industries, so we will stay ahead of the news and technology developments, and when its the time, we will strike" said Gavin Drake, Director of Garment Printing.
Gavin Drake, Print This Print That Ltd, http://www.GarmentPrinting.co.uk, +44 2071019356, [email protected]
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