Composites of 3D-Printed Polymers and Textile Fabrics*

3D printing belongs to the rapidly emerging technologies of our time. Due to its recent drawback – the technology is relatively slow compared with other primary shaping methods, such as injection molding –, 3D printing is often not used for creating complete large components but to add specific features to existing larger objects. One of the possibilities to create such composites with an additional value consists in combining 3D printed polymers with textile fabrics. Several attempts have been made to enhance the adhesion between both materials, a task which is still challenging for diverse material combinations. Our paper reports about new experiments combining 3D printed embossed designs, snap fasteners and zip fasteners with different textile base materials, showing the possibilities and technical limits of these novel composites.