Conclusions and outlook

The ability to knit 3D objects has been around for a long time. Its recent and probably future development has several origins: machine technology has benefited from advances in automation and digital technology, as well as in knitting materials.

3D knitting, which has been around for centuries, spread via the development of a machine specifically designed for the manufacture of stockings or socks. More recently, electronically-controlled Jacquard machines with their dedicated CAD-CAM software, combined with increasingly high-performance take-down systems, enable objects with increasingly complex shapes to be produced relatively quickly. As a result, they are now being used, or are likely to be used, in an ever wider variety of fields.

Today's limitation stems from two very different mechanisms: one stems from the mechanical properties of...