That said, I love the idea of specifying and being able to knit in 3D. We just need a brilliant designer to come up with something that would be really great to have knit and can’t be knit with traditional techniques. And like six revs of the hardware for scale, tensioning, yarn size, etc.
Anyway - really cool.
That is one of the challenges that must be accepted by the solid knitting community… and maybe find a way that it doesn’t collapse on itself.
In my other comment I suggested carbon fibre flywheels (for energy storage). A design that stresses the rotor uniformly to near it's breaking point would make a great storage device. If it's possible to add density to the fibres but without compromising strength, even better.
For a solid material with equal strength in all direction the optimal cross section is one with an exponentially decreasing thickness.
To give an intuitive reasoning, the more radially inwards you go there's is more material and velocity on the outside that's straining to break free, so you need larger cross-section to resist that. But now, this extra thickness too has to be supported as you move inwards. One can make this formal as a differential equation and the solution is an exponential profile.
Anyhow, for carbon fibres the optimal geometry will depend on the weave because a fibre has different strength along different directions.
Carbon fiber is typically woven in a simple fashion, to keep the strands straight because high tensile strength is the key.
But if it can be shown that knitted structures can preserve the tensile strength, that would be interesting indeed.
Think about the recent Titan submersible failure due to carbon fiber construction. What if instead of sheets of carbon fiber that could delaminate, you had a solid knitted carbon fiber shape? You might be able to demonstrate knitting that has more isotopic strength under both compressive and tensile loads.
If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy looking at the existing knitting machines, many are fascinating and very accessible. There are models powered by a hand crank[1], or with programmable patterns[2], or open source (open hardware).
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_knitting#/media/File%...
>> https://www.changhua-knitting-machine.com/how-to-select-the-...
I don't fully understand why, apparently most patterns require manipulating the yarn in a way that simply requires human dexterity?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46039952
Wonder if I should braid my wired earphones for storage to prevent tangling. I can keep the cable inside a pouch with the earpieces out but that's not very satisfactory.
My current fascination knitted ropes/cables/cords. These are not the typical ropes that are spun and coiled and held together by friction. These ones made of synthetic fibres look like woven tubes, but the insides aren't hollow. The insides seem packed with more woven tubes.
What I really want to see though, are 3d knitted heavy duty carbon fibre flywheels of optimal shape such that it's under equal radial stress everywhere. The shape is interesting to compute for a solid one.
