Researchers at Disney Research, Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University have invented a 3D printer that constructs objects out of laser-cut sheets of fabrics.

The newly developed machine can form soft and cuddly objects such as bunnies, phone cases and doll clothing that have complex geometries and circuitry, making them interactive.

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"Today's 3D printers can easily create custom metal, plastic and rubber objects but soft fabric objects, like plush toys, are still fabricated by hand," Jim McCann, associate research scientist at Disney Research Pittsburg, said in a press release.

"Layered fabric printing is one possible method to automate the production of this class of objects," McCann added.

The 3D printer works in two fabrication surfaces - the upper and lower cutting platform.

When fabric is fed from a roll into the machine, a vacuum holds the fabric in the upper cutting platform while a laser beam cuts the fabric from below.

The laser cuts a rectangular piece out of the fabric roll to create the desired 2D shape or shapes within that piece.

Once the trimming is complete, the bonding platform is raised and the vacuum in turned off to release the fabric.

The platform is then lowered to start bonding process by heating and pressing the fabric against other layers. The fabric is sealed with a heat-sensitive adhesive that's usually used in sewing.

Finally, the surrounding support fabric is peeled off by hand to reveal the 3D shape.

The researchers demonstrated the process by constructing a bunny 2.5 inches tall for two and a half hours. The shape was formed using 32 layers of a 2-mm-thick felt.

The new technology, detailed in the paper, "A Layered Fabric 3D Printer for Soft Interactive Objects-Paper," was presented this week at the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, held in Seoul, South Korea.

TagsDisney, 3D-printer, Fabric Printer