It is now almost impossible to distinguish between traditional fabrics and the fine cloth-like materials being produced at Leicester’s DeMontfort University on its Formiga P100 plastic laser sintering machine. Supplied by the German manufacturer EOS, this system can produce exact replicas of CAD models by fusing successive 100µm-thick layers of a nylon powder.

Guy Bingham, senior lecturer in industrial design at the university, was instrumental in securing a capital research grant to purchase the system in August 2009. He already knew of its capabilities from his days undertaking research at Loughborough University, when studying for his PhD.

Dr Bingham says: “Laser sintering of powders is undoubtedly the best additive manufacturing process for producing parts that are both highly complex and functional. In my particular specialism — textile structures — it is the only way to increase the resolution and complexity of structures without breaking them after they come out of the machine. This is because laser-sintered plastic parts do not require support structures, removal of which can destroy the fine links that form the structure of our latest textiles.”