Performance of Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printed Fabric with Different Structures

3D printed fashion products have become a trend. This article explains use of fused deposition modeling technology for 3D printing of fabrics with thermoplastic polyurethane flexible filament. A total of 15 structures of fabric were designed and printed for fabric performance tests. The fabric structures were “woven-like.” Those fabrics were printed by 0.8, 1.0, and 1.5 mm nozzles, separately. Meanwhile, the fabrics had various layer heights, but total thickness of the fabric was fixed at 0.6 mm. The strongest fabric could resist up to 460 N in ball burst test. In tensile test, the strongest fabric was broken at 230 N and maximum elongation was 647% at break. Besides, the failure performance was analyzed, recovery ability of fabric was also evaluated. The least deformation of the fabric was 2.5% after stretching with 60 N and releasing for five cycles. These results of the fabric performance could be a database and a reference for designing the structure of an apparel or a garment.