this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2025
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Simple difference: spiders chemically synthesize long chain fibers not amorphous filament, the fibers are self supporting with tension, whereas hot printed plastics deform under gravity.
You could theoretically print this way with a printer that had a flow reactor nozzle that mixed the reagents for fiber formation on demand instead of a hot extruder, I have yet to see this but it seems likely the textiles industry is working on it somewhere.
Peter Parker at 15 made this, with a box of scraps, in his room!
I'm sorry. I'm not Peter Parker.
You should be able to make continuous fibre-reinforced hot extruder filament, but you would either need to print very specific models or have a cutoff mechanism if you don't want the mother-of-all-stringing