KURT9000: Material Engagement | Extruding on Fabric II

Project Description |

The study’s objective is to explore the form finding potential in depositing polypropylene in various geometric shapes or patterns onto a pre-stressed fabric. When the fabric is released, the tensile forces in the two materials causes the extruded polypropylene to bend in attempt to balance with the fabric’s contracting forces and thus creating 3D surfaces from original 2D plane. The study showcases a series of experiments of form finding through various geometric boundary conditions, different chain arrangements or combination of both. The results shows a variety of 3D forms ranging self assembly form works to layered curvilinear surfaces. During this stage of the experiments, the study only uses one type of plastic for robotic extrusion and two fabric types, store bought nylon mesh and customized CNC knitted textile of elastic yarns. omized CNC knitted textile of elastic yarns. The next step of the study is not only to experiment with plastics of different rigidity or fabrics of varied elasticity but also to take advantage of the robot’s ability to deposit polypropylene three-dimensionally either through means of layering or arching to create a hybrid tensile structure.