ORIGAMI ENGINEERING: ADVANCED CONVERTING FOR NOVEL PAPER PRODUCTS by Ata Sina B.Eng. Mechanical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, 2003 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Applied Science in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Mechanical Engineering) The University of British Colombia (Vancouver) March 2015 © Ata Sina, 2015 Abstract The recent work has focused to develop a fully automated prototype in order to make products in large quantities. A unique and novel methodology has been developed to create self-folding paper products. This platform technology enables us to create sophisticated complex 3D paper structure from ordinary 2D paper sheet. The self-folding material is composed of pre-cut and creased paper and heat shrinking thermoplastic polymer. A computational drawing tool is first used to design folds for particular 3D shape then a computer numerical controller cutter with knife at variable pressure is employed to cut paper and the thermoplastic polymer. The cut paper and thermoplastic polymer can be attached together by a large number of polymeric materials and several means of attaching polymer-paper have been explored. The effect of various polymer-paper attachments including chemical adhesion, stitching and welding was studied. Heat welding procedure was quite successful and it showed to be promising technique to make a strong polymer-paper bond. An experimental device was made and a series of experiments were conducted to reveal the significant factors, their effective range, and their impact on the paper-polymer bond strength. The effect of pressure, temperature, welding attachment area and, thickness of paper on the paper-polymer bond strength were determined and a database of strength attachments with an effective factors variation was collected. First, our in-house developed servo-robot for cutting was assisted with automatic welding system and then a large flatbed cutter has been used and functionally changed to perform cutting, creasing and adhering paper and plastic in one step. The effect of significant factors such as attachment distance to fold line, heating temperature and paper thickness on the folding angle has been studied and discussed in chapter 4. Several examples of folded decorative and industrial products have been developed using this technique and introduced in chapter 5. ii Preface This dissertation is an original intellectual product of the author, Ata Sina with the guidance of his supervisors, Dr. James Olson and Dr. Mark Marinez. The Arduino code and the processing code used in appendix C and D, originally written by Giles Fernandes. iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. ii Preface.............................................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................. iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ viii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... xiii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1 - Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Molding ................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Hydro-Fold (Self-Folding Inkjet Printed Paper) ................................................................... 3 1.3 Shrinking Thread .................................................................................................................. 4 1.4 Shrinking Thermoplastic Sheets ........................................................................................... 4 1.5 Shrinkage Plastic Method ..................................................................................................... 6 1.5.1 Cutting and Creasing...................................................................................................... 7 1.5.2 3D Model Designing ...................................................................................................... 8 1.5.3 Attaching Plastic to Paper ............................................................................................ 11 1.5.4 Auto-Folding ................................................................................................................ 13 1.6 Research Objectives and Thesis Organization .................................................................... 13 Chapter 2 – Prototyping Automated Origami Paper Folding ......................................................... 15 2.1 Problems in Automating Paper Folding Shrinkage Method ............................................... 15 2.1.1 Adhering Plastic to Paper............................................................................................. 15 iv 2.1.2 Shrinkage Material ....................................................................................................... 15 2.1.3 Automation .................................................................................................................. 16 2.2 Solution to Automating Paper Folding Shrinkage Method................................................. 16 2.2.1 Shrinkage Polymers ..................................................................................................... 16 2.2.2 Attaching Polymer to Paper ......................................................................................... 18 2.2.3 Automation .................................................................................................................. 20 2.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 3 - Paper-Polystyrene Bond Strength in Heat Weld Method ............................................ 24 3.1 Objective ............................................................................................................................. 24 3.2 Experimental Method to Measure the Bond Strength......................................................... 24 3.2.1 Strength Attachment Measurement Using the Servo Robot ........................................ 25 3.2.2 Strength Attachment Measurement Using a New Experimental Setup ....................... 26 3.3 Experimental Result and Discussion .................................................................................. 32 3.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 4 – Paper Folding Simulation ............................................................................................ 41 4.1 Objective ............................................................................................................................. 41 4.2 Experimental Studies .......................................................................................................... 41 4.2.1 Effect of Polystyrene Attachment Distance to Fold Line on Fold Angle .................... 41 4.2.2 Effect of Temperature on Fold Angle .......................................................................... 42 4.2.3 Effect of Paper Thickness on Fold Angle .................................................................... 42 Chapter 5 – Products and Applications ........................................................................................... 46 5.1 Various Decorative Design ................................................................................................. 46 5.2 Pop-Up Greeting Card ........................................................................................................ 54 5.3 Lampshade .......................................................................................................................... 59 5.4 Tessellation ......................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 6 – Conclusion and Recommendation for Future Work ................................................... 69 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 71 Appendix A-Inverse Kinematics Theory ........................................................................................ 73 Appendix B-Calculation for the Amplification of Error ................................................................. 74 Appendix C-Arduino Code ............................................................................................................. 75 Appendix D-Processing Code ......................................................................................................... 80 Appendix E-Automatic Cutting and Soldering Setup Manual ......................................................