"Ultimate" Bikini Clip

Since temperatures are rising and we're closing in on summer (and we're going on vacation soon) my wife decided to look through here bikinis just to realize that on her favorite two the clips are broken.

She was a bit upset since she didn't want to cut the seams of the straps and sew them again after the new clips are put in place, so I told here I might be able to design a replacement clip for her that's easily replaceable.

First thought it's an easy job, but took me quite some trial and error and various iterations until I could tick all boxes of requirements and now this is my final design.

I did multiple versions for different strap widths (ranging from 20 - 40mm), only printed and tested the 30mm version as of now.

Following materials were tested:

• Prusament PC Blend Carbon Fibre → works perfect
• Extrudr Greentec Pro Carbon (PLA-CF) → works perfect (stiffness almost equal to PC-CF)
• Prusament PETG Carbon Fibre → works great (a bit more flex than PC-CF and PLA-CF)
• Prusament PPC Blend → works great (a bit more flex than PETG-CF)
• Prusament PETG → works ok (most flex of all tested materials)

Don't have any ABS, ASA, PA or PA-CF at home at the moment to test, but I guess all those materials will work as well.

Didn't test PLA for obvious reasons, I think it will work well too due to it's stiffness, but summer sun, heat, UV rays, chlorine and salt water might not be the best environment for regular PLA to hold up.

Even though PETG was the “weakest” material I tested with this clip, I took me an excessive amount of force to permanently deform and break the clip, tbh I think the strap or a seam might tear beforehand.

I ended up using Prusament PCCF and Extrudr Greentec Pro Carbon for the Bikini clips for my wife and since we're going on vacation soon, I'll soon see how they hold up.

In case one breaks, they are easily replaced, just twist off the “fixed” hook for a quick and easy removal and replace it with a new one, no tools or sewing required and one clip prints in about 15 minutes and costs a few cents :-)

Print settings:

• Material whatever you choose
• 0,2mm layer height
• 4 Perimeters
• 9 layers bottom
• 9 layers top
• 0% infill

As an alternative, just download the 3mf file, import it as project so you have everything setup, change the material for your desired one and replace the stl with the version you'd like to print (30mm version is in the 3mf file).

Update 20.04.2024

Just came back from our vacation, all clips held up perfectly for a week under the Egyptian sun, sea water and pool water, they also survived the washing mashine without any issues so guess they are bullet proof :)