Pre-stressed and constrained transformable materials
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsSkylar JE Tibbits, Athina Papadopoulou, David N. Constanza, Christophe Guberan
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Abstract
A transformable material and comprising a base material having a natural shape, with a second material disposed on the base material in a particular pattern so as to impose a transformed shape on the base material, the transformed shape being different than the natural shape. More particularly, the base material is a stretchable 2-dimensional material, and is subjected to pre-stressing before and during disposition of the second material, whereupon after release of the stress, the stretchable base material with the disposed second material thereon automatically transform into a predetermined 3-dimensional manufactured shape.
Claims32
A method of forming a transformable material comprising:
- applying stress to a stretchable base material in one or more directions to form a pre-stressed stretchable base material;
- and
- depositing one or more physical constraints onto or within the pre-stressed stretchable base material in a predetermined pattern to provide a pre-stressed physically constrained stretchable base material,
- wherein the stretchable base material has a natural shape before applying stress and before depositing the one or more physical constraints,
- wherein the one or more physical constraints comprise one or more materials different than the stretchable base material, and
- wherein the one or more physical constraints provide the stretchable base material with a predetermined transformed shape different than the natural shape upon release of the applied stress.
A method of forming a 3-dimensional transformed shape comprising:
- applying stress to a stretchable base material in one or more directions to form a pre-stressed stretchable base material;
- depositing one or more physical constraints onto or within the pre-stressed stretchable base material in a predetermined pattern to provide a pre-stressed physically constrained stretchable base material;
- and
- releasing the stress applied to the stretchable base material,
- wherein the stretchable base material has a natural shape before applying stress and before depositing the one or more physical constraints,
- wherein the one or more physical constraints comprise one or more materials different than the stretchable base material, and
- wherein upon releasing the stress applied to the stretchable base material, the one or more physical constraints provide the stretchable base material with a predetermined transformed 3-dimensional shape different than the natural shape of the stretchable base material.
A method of material transformation comprising:
- applying stress to a stretchable base material in one or more directions to form a pre-stressed stretchable base material;
- depositing one or more physical constraints onto or within the pre-stressed stretchable base material to provide a pre-stressed physically constrained stretchable base material;
- and
- releasing the applied stress from the pre-stressed physically constrained stretchable base material,
- wherein release of the applied stress from the pre-stressed physically constrained stretchable base material causes the physically constrained stretchable base material to take on a transformed shape.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.