By making a pattern of laser cuts in a flat piece of wood, you can easily create hinges, clamps, and other features. We made wooden booklets, each with a hinge and a notepad holder. The hinge can be fully bent in both directions repeatedly without breaking. How is that possible? First, wood has the strength to withstand repetitive bending and twisting. It won’t break as long as the stresses stay under a certain limit.
The trick to making the wood flexible is to break it up in a lot of small pieces that can all twist a little. All these tiny twists add up so you can bend the sheet without stressing the material too much.
Adafruit for Educators! #backtoschool
Please visit our educator’s section to learn more about:
- Adafruit volume discounts and programs for educators, discounts galore!
- Adafruit electronic kits, products, Arduino & Raspberry Pi products for education, we have’em!
- Adafruit products and Arduino for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Used in schools!
- The Adafruit System, the best way to learn electronics!
- Adafruit iron-on “skill badges” / patches and partners, celebrate skills building!
- Resources for educators, our picks for educators!
- Adafruit for educators content on Adafruit.com, daily posts for educators!
- Circuit Playground – iPad/iPhone App For Educators, volume discounts via Apple’s edu program!
- Adafruit copyright permission for educators, educators can use them, hassle-free!
Perfect timing as Apple patents “sninges”. I think this could get really interesting as this idea has been publicly displayed/disclosed for years.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/08/will-it-bend-newly-granted-apple-patent-shows-off-seamless-flexible-hinge/