Invention Summary:
Folded materials are useful in packaging, sandwich structures, floor boards, car bumpers and other applications where requirements pertaining to shock, vibration, energy absorption, and/or a high strength-to-weight ratio including volume reduction must be met. Folding flat sheets of material into intricate three-dimensional structures may provide a new technology for production of cores and sandwich structures. Currentproduction methods such as stretch-drawing, forging, pressing, casting and fabrication may appear to produce cosmetically similar patterns but the mechanical properties are significantly different. This is particularly so in folding thin sheet materials where variations in sheet thickness and/or mechanical properties are unacceptable. Two Rutgers industrial and systems engineering researchers developed a novel approach to folding sheets of materials including metal, paper, plastic and composites which includes the benefits of three dimensional structures while reducing the reduction of mechanical properties associated with current technologies. In addition, they’ve built and tested a prototype machine capable of producing these unique folding structures.
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Intellectual Property & Development Status: Issued U.S. patents: 8,475,350; 7,758,487; 7,115,089; 7,691,045, and multiple PCTs filed