3D printing Bacterial Cellulose and PETG to Reinforce Textiles for material longevity in textiles circularity

In a circular textiles economy, there is a need to reduce consumption of new materials and encourage ways to keep materials and garments in use for longer as well as utilising waste as a raw material. Repair and reinforcement of materials is a traditional practice that has been highlighted as key to extending the life cycle of a material. Digitalisation of repair tools could facilitate how repair is adopted at scale. 3D printing has been highlighted as an important technology for future manufacturing due to its ease, speed, and the ability to be locally or globally produced. Although 3D printing is an accessible tool for at-home object printing of parts for repair, the tool has not been investigated to extend the life cycle of a textile material through repair or reinforcement. In this paper we present an interdisciplinary approach explored in the Textiles Circularity Centre to investigate how 3D printing a medium consisting of bacterial cellulose and PTGE onto textiles can reinforce a material. We characterise the printed medium to explore how 3D printing can extend the life of textiles through reinforcement, and discuss the use of 3D Printing as a future tool for a circular textile economy..

This dataset are files (STL, and solid work parts) used to print the patterns used in the paper.