HAPTIC digital 3D printing on textile surfaces for high-volume footwear manufacturing
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: A new digital dispensing process was developed for applying waterborne textile HAPTIC coatings in a fully automatically controlled new 3D printing process. A continuous line width can be controlled by the quantity of ink flow, nozzle speed, and geometrical nozzle design. Inaccuracies in the printing pattern found at the start and end points of the dispensing process, were overcome by developing a smart-plunger-based dosing system. Excellent bonding to textiles based on synthetic fibers could be achieved, and all properties required for athletic footwear applications could be met, including flexing and abrasion performance. It could be demonstrated that the HAPTIC coating technology could be transferred from a large-scale industrial screen printing process into a fully automatic digital 3D dispensing process. The Design determines printing speed and resolution, but initial evaluation of overall costs indicates that dispensing process on flat and curved surfaces could be very well suitable for full upscaling into mass production of footwear components.
Source: Materials Today Proceedings
Authors: Thomas W. Schmidt, Maximilian Scherf, Daniel Wittwer, Paula Schumann, Elena Guillén, Julia Kastner
Institutions: Huafon Group (China), PROFACTOR GmbH (Austria)
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $200
Award: G161875471
OpenAlex ID: W4380052872