3D Knitting Machines will be in Every Home

Knitting had once been the domain of grannies in bygone days, but now it has gone high tech and will soon be the next big thing in the maker world. 3D knitting as known as the tech version had been inspired by the 3D printing revolution, aiming a goal to be the one piece of manufacturing technology in all homes. It makes clothes and not objects and has a great advantage over 3D printing since it has several uses.

Everyone seems to wear clothes and is always on the look for changes and updates moving with the latest trend. Another advantage of 3D printing is that it is reusable. For coarser knits, garments could be un-knitted if one does not like the ways it may look or if one is just bored with it, leaving you with the option of turning it into some other alternative.

Three dimensional knitting machines are made available and seem to be on the rise. One such example is the OpenKnit which can be built from a kit and is a part of a manufacturing ecosystem which comprises of a software interface together with digital hub to share designs. OpenKnit already seems to be having a huge global community increasing the platform and restating the hardware as well as software.

Open Source Approach to Wearable Technology

As in the cases of all successful open source projects, this too will progress and issue new and unexpected version in 2015. For over 20 years, commercial 3D knitting machines have been operative, though they are created for established mass production.

The open source knitting community, in contrast would be changing the way clothes will be designed and made, creating new types of clothing especially by assimilating various types of fibres in the knitting. These would be by way of electrically conducting threads. On doing so, the technology would be kick-starting an open source approach to a wearable technology, with embedded sensors together with improved function, which commercially had been slow in taking off.

 In order to comprehend the capabilities of home 3D knitting machines, one needs to consider how the sewing machine that was presented in the 19th century had changed completely the way clothes were designed, made and repaired. This reduced the price of clothing, creating inventions in garment making and fashion. Ultimately small business gave way to the mass-produced clothes manufacturers which tend to control the present markets.

Inexpensive Modified Garments Designed to Fit

The 3D knitting machine tends to now promise another way of commotion. Since each one of us tends to be of different shape and size, 3D knitting provides something which the commercial clothes manufacturers do not offer, inexpensive modified garments designed to fit a person.

This is possible with the help of digital scanning technologies and design software which can resize the clothing designs to fit an individual. Since these garments are created at home, one could instantly try them on and if any alteration is needed, they can be redone.

Besides this, due to the power of social media, one has the opportunity of sharing the patterns and designs easily and readily where the potential of 3D knitting technology tend to become clear.