Additively Manufactured Dual‐Faced Structured Fabric for Shape‐Adaptive Protection

Abstract

Fabric‐based materials have demonstrated promise for high‐performance wearable applications but are currently restricted by their deficient mechanical properties. Here, this work leverages the design freedom offered by additive manufacturing and a novel interlocking pattern to for the first time fabricate a dual‐faced chain mail structure consisting of 3D re‐entrant unit cells. The flexible structured fabric demonstrates high specific energy absorption and specific strength of up to 1530 J kg−1 and 5900 Nm kg−1, respectively, together with an excellent recovery ratio of ≈80%, thereby overcoming the strength–recoverability trade‐off. The designed dual‐faced structured fabric compares favorably against a wide range of materials proposed for wearable applications, attributed to the synergetic strengthening of the energy‐absorbing re‐entrant unit cells and their unique topological interlocking. This work advocates the combined design of energy‐absorbing unit cells and their interlocking to extend the application prospects of fabric‐based materials to shape‐adaptive protection.

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