3D-printing method of creating composite textile-type fabric (with conductive tracks) that can be applied as smart textiles

The growing boom of electronic compact devices for a long period haven't touched the textile production, but today we all see the wave of interest here from academic to industrial production fields. The market size of smart textile in 2020 was valued at USD 40.65 billion and is expected to grow up to USD 118 billion by 2028 [2]. Recent developments have enabled new ways of electronic interactions with fabric-based products, which include conductive materials, adding sensors, data collection and communication instruments with users. E-textiles have been commercialized in entertainment, sport markets, healthcare areas. The market has already invented smart glasses and socks, same way as smart textile inside clothes [3]. All giant companies have taken a growing interest in this new direction of development and additive manufacturing starts to play a key role in this market, as innovative companies widely experimenting with electronics as integral part of fabric [7]. Examples include Google's Jacquard, Apple’s Fabric- Related Patents, Tommy Hilfiger’s new line of smart clothing and others [4].

Common production of e-textiles has usually been formed by combining knitting/weaving technologies together with embedding of conductive fibers into traditional fabrics [8]. Designers who use additive technology in the most practical way (it's not just about chain-like structure approach), create 3d-printed elements on-top of fabrics (4D printing) or use the most innovative 3d ink-printed objects [9][10], but still, they have many limitations (e.g. high production cost, limited elasticity, printing issues, material life instability, impracticality, cleaning issues, etc.) and this show us the lack of new directions of R&D we need to add [5].

My idea is aiming to a new 3d-printing method of creating smart textile in the form of flexible textile-type fabric as complex smart composite, that isn't planned to be an integral part of cloth and won't use fabrics as a scaffold. The realization of such concept could create a wide range of opportunities for experimenting with new 3d-printed materials and for uniting such flexible smart 3d-printed objects with almost any type of known fabrics or for their independent use.

This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No. S-PD-22-44.