Office chairs, safety gloves, bandages and sports shoes have one thing in common: they are made using an innovative technology, i.e. 3D knitting. Which type of yarn is used depends on the area of application. It is possible to knit with metal or glass fibres as well as textile fibres. In future, technical knitted fabrics are expected to be increasingly used as materials for airplanes and cars or for building bridges.
The major advantage of this production technology is that both rigid and flexible areas can be incorporated within a single part. For example, a knitted shoe can adapt better to the movement of the foot than standard footwear. At the same time, the stiff zones in the knitted structure give the foot stability in places where it is needed. Knitting with a lightweight yarn compound also gives the shoe a low weight.
The technology also proves its worth from an environmentally friendly point of view. It doesn't create any waste products and some knitting techniques no longer have a need for additional production steps, such as sewing parts together. As the fibres of the textile upper shoe are already woven together, the knitted minimalist shoe does not need any seams, for example.
A 3D knitted fabric also provides a suitable structure for the Festo BionicMotionRobot. When developing the bionic robot arm, the engineers looked closely at the muscle fibre of an octopus’ tentacle.
The muscles in the tentacles consist of several layers and run in different directions. The interaction of radial, diagonal and longitudinal fibres allows the octopus to purposefully control its tentacles. Inside the pneumatic robot arm is a 3D fabric that is based on this natural role model.