ICAT Playdate — Multi-Head 3d Printing with a Conveyor for performance textiles

Especially when printing at scale, additive manufacturing technologies (often referred to as 3D printing) suffer from long build (production) times. For extrusion-based processes, this stems from the throughput limitations of a single nozzle; material can only be deposited so quickly before encountering the physical limitations of polymer flow. To overcome these challenges, the team has created a novel deposition tool that simultaneously extrudes material from multiple nozzles (dubbed “Cerberus” referencing a mythical 3-headed dog). With this tool, multiple copies of the toolpath are constructed at the same time, making it well-suited for serialized production of small components and especially periodic structures (e.g., fabrics and textiles) that can take advantage of the copies. In conjunction with a robotic workcell consisting of an industrial robotic arm and conveyor belt, the team has used the tool to produce multiple large-scale sheets of performance fabrics. Among these are prototype fog harvesting meshes designed to collect drinking water for water scarce communities around the world. Generally, Cerberus combines the advantages of 3d printing and conventional fabric looms: it has the potential speed of a loom, with the geometric precision of a 3d printer to produce highly refined textiles for numerous industry applications.