Check out this industrial-robot variant of origami — folding sheet metal into complex difficult to press shapes,
via GrabCAD:
Take the art of Orgami, the process of folding and unfolding a single piece of square paper and creating a bird, or a frog. And then take the art of metal fabrication. Add a computer and a fully articulated robotic arm and what do you have? Folded sheet metal like you’ve never seen it before.
Robofold is a set of arms that bends sheet metal in a infinite number of prescribed manners. Each piece of sheet metal has been cut into a very specific shape to ‘guide’ the folding process. By simulating the folding and parametrically calculating the folds in CAD, one can easily focus the mechanical stress and create very specific folds that don’t just follow straight lines, but curve as well. Architectural ornamentation or car components like fenders can be created in a repeatable fashion.
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