Control vs. Lined Experiments
circle:
“pie”
single cup fold:
multiple cupping folds:
circle control:
“spork”
lined spoon:
short spoon control:
winged spoon:
control winged spoon:
spoon:
control spoon:
rectangles:
Factors affecting repeatability:
Corners: I noticed that the cuts at the intersection of the oval and the rectangle sometimes had slits just by error of hand-cutting. This is likely what created inconsistencies in the folding of these pieces. In the spoon attempt above, the rectangular section folded similarly each time.
initial curvature of pieces: when the sheets come out of the printer, some pieces are slightly warped (from heat) to begin with. When put on the hot plate, this caused some parts of the shape to not be touching the hot plate at all, which affects how it is heated.
imperfections in line thickness/weight: most consistent results came from samples that went through the printer. this ink was the most opaque and was uniform in thickness all the way through, unlike hand-drawn lines. Thicker lines responded faster and more prominently than thin lines.
Takeaways
- Lined samples act as an expedited method of folding which allows for more direction/control vs. the randomized creasing seen in control groups
- Material should be placed where the heat lamp is centered due to weaker light distribution as it radiates outwards
- If the plate is too hot, the material will instantly melt and morph with bubbles
- Other pieces can’t attach together without external pressure
Replicable Hinge Fold
Circular Cup Fold
Final Spoon Folds and Forms
This week we finalized the folds we are including in our final report and are doing one more lab with the printed shrinky dink paper to make sure the folds are replicable. We plan on finishing up photos and design language system graphics for the final this week. Below are the final forms.
01 Pinch Fold | Trapezoidal
02 Cupping fold | Perimeter
03 Spork Attempt | Defined Edge and Crinkle Folds
This shape was pretty consistent among the 3 attempts.
4/29 Pinch and Crinkle Folds
Why: Taking one look at this project, one might immediately think “more plastic utensils?” but the reason we decided to focus on utensils isn’t because of the materiality of polystyrene rather for the unique forms it can morph into under heat. We find potential in the application of low-touch, heat-activated morphing in the medical field where many tools are single-use for sanitary purposes. Because our knowledge base isn’t in medicine, we chose to explore the system of kitchen tools due to their universality and their uniqueness in shape and bends. We see this as a starting point to discover more accurate and technical patterns that can evolve with the shrinky dink polymer.
Weekend Update: We continue creating a system of folds for our final set of utensils
New Research:
Precedent of organizing/naming curved origami from “British Origami Society”
Iterating on the spoon design:
Ray used some thick tin foil to test the fold design. Thick tin foil bends more similarly to the shink paper compared to paper. This makes it a better tool for prototyping curving designs.