Aussie engineers say their latest lightweight flat pack invention is easy to transport, quick to make and stronger than traditional building materials.
Made possible by a self-locking system inspired by origami, the Japanese technique of paper folding that was mysteriously a very big part of my grade five curriculum, researchers at RMIT University say their “innovative” building tubes provide a simple, strong solution to speeding up construction.
Lead researchers Dr Jeff (Ting-Uei) Lee and Distinguished Professor Mike (Yi Min) Xie said the man-made tubes were similar in design to bamboo, which also have internal structures providing natural reinforcement.
“This self-locking system is the result of an intelligent geometric design,” said Lee from RMIT’s School of Engineering.
“Our invention is suitable for large-scale use — a panel, weighing just 1.3 kg, made from multiple tubes can easily support a 75 kg person.”
Flat-pack tubes are already widely used in engineering and scientific applications, seen in plenty of civil construction projects and even making their way into space within certain popup NASA structures.
But with this new system making these tubes quicker to assemble into a strong, self-locked state, Xie said that there are plenty of applications to be found for the tech across the entire construction industry.
“Our research not only opens up new possibilities for innovative and multifunctional structural designs, but it can also significantly improve existing deployable systems,” said Xie.
“With our origami-inspired innovation, flat-pack tubes are not only easy to transport, but they also become strong enough to withstand external forces when in use,”
“The tube is also self-locking, meaning its strong shape is securely locked in place without the need for extra mechanisms or human intervention.”
“When NASA deploys solar arrays, for example, the booms used are tubes that were packed flat before being unfurled in space,” added Lee.
“These tubes are hollow though, so they could potentially deform under certain forces in space. With our new design, these booms could be a stronger structure.”
Xie also claimed that the group’s smart algorithm would give engineers control over how the structure behaves under load by changing the tube orientations.
However, it will be a while before builders get their hands on the tubes, with the team planning or more testing to continue improving the design and explore new possibilities for its development.
“We aim to extend the self-locking feature to different tube shapes and test how the tubes perform under various forces, such as bending and twisting,” Lee said.
“We are also exploring new materials and manufacturing methods to create smaller, more precise tubes.”
“We plan to improve our smart algorithm to make the tubes even more adaptable and efficient for different real-world situations,” added Xie.
