3D printing as a manufacturing technology gives numerous potential benefits with regards to design optimization, distributed manufacturing and embedding of functional elements. Drawbacks currently are the slow speed of printing and the complexity of embedding functional elements within a 3D structure, both of which can be overcome by constructing a sheet of material that folds into the desired final shape. The aim of this project is to investigate the mechanisms of self-folding structures, and how this can be used to design suitable 2D net shapes that will autonomously fold to produce 3D parts.
Undergraduate
None
Lab allocations have not been finalised