There are many sustainable projects that have discovered 3D printing, such as the Million Waves Project or Searious Business. Now researchers at St. Catherine University in Minnesota have investigated how new technologies such as additive manufacturing can create innovative clothing such as 3D-printed jewelry, which follows the latest trend “zero waste”. The results were published in SpringerOpen and deals with detailed, sustainable, 3D printed accessories such as various pendants, buttons and necklaces. According to the study, zero waste is “a philosophy focused on the development and management of products and processes in order to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, and to conserve all resources”.
The study involved two researchers, both of whom used FDM technology to produce the 3D printed sustainable fashion accessories. They used modeling tools like Rhinoceros 5 and Tinkercad to create the 3D models of the jewelry. They then printed the jewelry using the MakerBot Replicator 2 and polylactic acid filament, PLA, a biocompatible raw material. The researchers add: “While most studies have focused on materials and hardware research, this data reflects a new concern, namely efforts to reduce waste […]“.
Every piece of jewelry is different
Rhinoceros 5 CAD was used to make the pendants. Each pendant is different, which is why the printing time varies between 40 minutes and one hour and 18 minutes. In some cases, gold color was also used after printing to give the pendants that special extra and to replicate metal jewelry. All trailers feature a variety of curves, corners, gauges and textures, while taking care not to use any support material to minimize waste.
The research team also emphasized in their study: “There is significant potential to use this breakthrough technology to design and create fashion that is unique, sustainable (zero waste) and made on demand.”
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Photo credits: SpringerOpen