You’ve seen MIT’s KnittedKeyboard II, now check out CMU’s Solid Knitting Machine. Similar to 3D printers, this machine builds objects by layers with material fed through an automated system that consists of a series of hooked needles with latches that can be instructed to engage with manipulating the yarn.
The layers are connected to each other by the topologically intertwined stitch structure of knitting. In other words, the objects can easily be unraveled and re-knit, unlike other 3D printing methods which require finished objects to be melted down and re-extruded into filament in order to be recycled.
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It feels sort of like a stack of felt or the sole of a shoe. We hope that other people out there are going to build their own solid knitting machines and come up with ideas we haven’t yet explored,” said James McCann, an associate professor in the Robotics Institute at CMU.
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