That made up word up there is actually in a research paper, thanks to the Carnegie Mellon University researchers who came up with a technique to make FDM 3D printers print strands of hair, fiber or bristles, without any hardware modification.
Researchers Gierad Laput, Xiang “Anthony” Chen and Chris Harrison were inspired by “stringing” – the stray strand of glue that sometimes leaks out of a glue gun. It’s an unwanted side effect that also plagues 3D printers, but the researchers realized it can be put to good use: “The basic approach for simulating hair with FDM printers is to extrude tiny bits of plastic material and then immediately and quickly move the extruder away.”
Their software has adjustable parameters such as length, thickness, density, distribution and flow to create different types of hair or bristles. Like non-printed hair, the resulting product (at least when printed with PLA) can be cut, braided or blow dried using conventional tools.
Comb through the full research paper on Chris Harrison’s website (pdf).
[via Hack A Day]
