I have been designing and studying 3D printed chain mail patters using xGenerative. These chainmail sections are all printed as a unit, and require no assembling. 

I started with a traditional  X patterned chainmail made from intersecting circles on mirrored planes. When 3D printed, this chainmail remains quite tight (meaning it has very little stretch), yet this dense chainmail has the fluidity of a fabric. 

I was inspired by the stretchiness of my first attempt, and wanted to create an object that would allow for even more stretch. I made a new chainmail structure, this time taking inspiration from an accordion fold. Modeling this this ended up being quite the puzzle, but in the end it produced a chainmail that could grow 2-3 times in size after being taken off of the printer bed. 

These chainmail files involve hundreds of separate bodies, so it is very easy for the printers to get a little bit off. 

This project is on going research happening at the 3DExperience Lab in Waltham, MA.