Screams filled the lab – thankfully, screams of joy. Aqib Zaman, a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), had a mini-chair appear out of nowhere.
He pulled a thread attached to a flat, rectangular piece of material, like a waffle, separated into dozens of odd-looking square tiles. With its careful gravitational pull, the slab compressed and suddenly rose to take the form of a small, curved, modernist-style chair.
After months of research, he and one of his fellow researchers saw their idea come to fruition for the first time. “It was a great moment,” Zaman recalls. “We were both excited and screaming.”
Zaman is inspired by kirigami, a Japanese art form similar to origami, but rather than simply folding paper to achieve 3D shapes, kirigami also involves cutting.
Often used to make paper pop-ups. Both origami and kirigami have influenced engineers for many years. These technologies allow materials to do amazing things, but finding useful applications for them has long been a challenge.
MIT team has designed flat tiles that can be pulled up into 3D structures [Algorithmic Design Group, MIT-CSAIL]
In Zaman’s case, he and his colleagues discovered a way to 3D print the material by dividing it into chunky square tiles. Due to the angle of the sides of these tiles and the precise nature of the cuts that separate them, when pressed together, the desired 3D shape emerges. For example, it could be a chair, a tent-like structure, or some kind of curved container.
The researchers created a computer program that converted the 3D model into a flat, grid-like version with pull cords attached. This work was published in the paper published in december.
“You can also create large structures like buildings,” Zaman says.
At the other end of the scale, this technology could also be used to create small structures that, when activated, open to deliver drugs to specific sites in the body. Zaman said he and his colleagues are currently working on research in this area.
But one of the key hurdles in bringing origami and kirigami into engineering fields is that these techniques often make things quite complicated. The famous Miura fold was developed by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura and allows sheet-like materials to be folded into a parallelogram, making them very compact.
The aim was to create a storage solution for solar arrays on satellites and spacecraft.
1995, Japan’s real satellite We have installed solar panels It was a Miura fold. But Mark Schenk, an expert in origami-inspired engineering at Britsol University, says there is an easier way to solve the problem.
He points out that origami-based designs can be difficult to scale up or use on materials other than paper. This is very forgiving even after many folds and refolds.
“Origami is not yet commonly used in real engineering applications,” Schenk says. But that may be about to change.
Researchers’ mathematical understanding of origami-like structures has advanced dramatically in recent decades, he notes, and several startups and university spinouts are now aiming to develop origami and kirigami-inspired products.
Stillfold uses folding technology to create this bike’s chassis [Stillfold]
Sweden’s Stilfold is one such startup. “We are industrializing a simple method of forming sheet metal based on origami,” says CEO and co-founder Jonas Nivan. Stilfold uses a blunt wheel to create creases in sheet metal. This creates curves and bends in the material, making it stiffer. “Like when I hugged you [a slice of] Pizza,” Nivan explains.
origami model sometimes resort to folding Or curve the paper to make it more rigid.
Additionally, a Finnish project called Fold2 looked at using intricately folded cardboard to create packaging inserts designed to protect products during transport.
For Stilfold, the advantage of doing this in metal is that the material can be strengthened without the need for as many brackets, screws and supports, reducing the overall volume of material required and, as a result, also reducing the cost and tangible carbon emissions of products made with this technology. “You can achieve material savings of about 20 to 30 percent just by increasing stiffness,” Nyvang says.
Stilfold has developed a robot that can crease metal sheets and has so far used the method to manufacture 200 shiny metal electric bike chassis, which are currently being shipped to customers.
Nievan said Stillfold is looking into working with Swedish car companies Volvo and Scania to develop new lightweight parts for cars and trucks.
But encouraging broader adoption of the technology may be difficult. Nivan says it can be difficult to convince engineers to switch to a radically different way of doing things.
Folds are used by US researchers to create wing-like structures [Raman Vaidya/Moneesh Upmanyu]
Still, the possibility of using origami to improve existing technology is appealing to some. Moneesh Upmanyu and one of his doctoral students from Northeastern University, USA, Obtained a patent last year The design uses origami to create a strong and foldable wing structure.
It has a flexible corrugated structure (like an accordion) inside the wing that allows the wing to fold quickly and bend easily.
Such wings can be bent only at the ends to stabilize them during flight, for example, like birds bend their wings.
“Birds can actually transform their feathers,” Upmanyu says. “They’ve perfected this very efficient way of flying.” Aircraft and wind turbines may someday do the same. Upmanyu suggests that by adjusting the shape of the airfoil using a valve-based system, the airfoil could be able to react automatically and dynamically to air pressure.
Developing these ideas into actual products requires significant research and investment. On the other hand, origami, the traditional method of folding paper, continues to be loved by many people. However, not everyone enjoys it.
“For me, it’s an academic interest and a job,” admits Mark Schenk, who says he has little interest in making paper origami models. “The funny thing is, my mom is really good at it.”