<p>Would it be posible to design something that is as flexible and that can be printed with PLA that would work as a cloth? I did some research and found that there was a company named Electroloom but that didn't make it. I'm not looking for anything fine, just something that would work for wiping</p>

[{'answer_id': 13311, 'author': 'UnderPM', 'author_id': 20599, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/20599', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Maybe you would be better off with TPU or some other type of flexible material...</p>\n\n<p>I have been able to print PLA and have it flex quite a bit, but that was an ~0.2mm single layer print, I guess maybe up to 0.3-0.4mm should still be a little bit flexible, but not much. Also since you want it to wipe things, maybe you should look if TPU even has all the properties required for that as Carl mentioned in the comments.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 13312, 'author': 'user77232', 'author_id': 12857, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/12857', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>You can not 3D print that because there is no nozzle or method for producing filaments of the required size. A few microns at least. You might be able to spin molten pla like cotton candy and it might absorb; but I doubt it.</p>\n\n<p><a href="https://phys.org/news/2010-05-cotton-candy-machine-tiny-nanofibers.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://phys.org/news/2010-05-cotton-candy-machine-tiny-nanofibers.html</a> </p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/VFHQd.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/VFHQd.jpg" alt="Rotary Jet-Spinning"></a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 18633, 'author': 'Trish', 'author_id': 8884, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/8884', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<h2>printed PLA will not behave like cloth.</h2>\n<p>Hard PLA can not behave like cloth, and even a 0.1\xa0mm sheet of PLA will behave like a plastic sheet, not like cloth. In itself, it will always be a hard material.</p>\n<h2>printed PLA can be combined with fabric</h2>\n<p>Printing a hard plastic onto a thin mesh of fabric can create a compound material. For example, this has been used to create &quot;scales&quot; that are embedded on the fabric, for example with an <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2948315" rel="nofollow noreferrer">octagon setup</a>. These materials have limited bending areas and can, if designed well and made from small scales, almost fall similar to a stiff normal fabric, or have totally different behavior.</p>\n<p>Only the printed on fabric will be able to absorb moisture, a hard lip printed onto the material will be able to push liquids and solids. If instead of PLA a TPE was used, the lip would deform to have contact and act as a wiper.</p>\n<p>With clever design, this can even be used to imitate <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2755451" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fantastical scales</a>.</p>\n<h2>Printed PLA scales can imitate cloth</h2>\n<p><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/space-fabric-links-fashion-and-engineering" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NASA</a> worked on a 3D printed scale mail, which offers a somewhat solid surface when under no extra load but shows special movement patterns when exposed to forces. For example, a curtain of these printed scales could, under force, always push itself to the left side and assume a shape that funnels an airstream to the right. These 3D printed scales are at times referred to as &quot;printed chainmail&quot; or &quot;printed fabric&quot;, depending on how they fall and how large the individual elements are.</p>\n<p>The result of inquiries into these print in place solutions range from designs that use techniques used in <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:399474" rel="nofollow noreferrer">classic flexible jewelry band designs</a> and <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2867241" rel="nofollow noreferrer">European 4:1 Chainmail patterns</a> that fall exactly like their metal counterparts over designs inspired by the NASA method that <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3095799" rel="nofollow noreferrer">almost behave like a leather</a> in a limited movement range to more exotic ones that <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2942351" rel="nofollow noreferrer">imitate in one axis the movement of tank threads while being a little stiffer in the other</a></p>\n<h2>There is spun PLA cloth...</h2>\n<p><a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/13312/8884">PLA can be spun into yarn</a> in a similar process to the making of other polymer-based yarns. The resulting thread is 0.01\xa0mm and thinner and then can be weaved using traditional methods. In this thickness, it behaves exactly like cloth, but that is an order of magnitude thinner than the thinnest nozzle available on the commercial market (0.1\xa0mm) and unprintable.</p>\n'}]
['https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/13305', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/20591/']