Thick-Panel Miura-Ori Fold

Summary

This design, developed by JingYi Yang and Zhong You at Oxford University, showcases a very useful technique for adding thickness to certain origami patterns. By alternating hinges on the tops and bottoms of different sections, and by adding vertical cuts at carefully selected points, the thickness of the assembly is fully incorporated into the kinematics of the mechanism, and so causes no problems to the folding action.

Read more about the mathematics and the research behind this design in our Technical Information section below!

Assembly

Pay very close attention to the details below, as they are vital for the printing of effective hinges on the top and bottom of the model.

While we did print ours in PLA, PETG will likely yield more robust results, due to its greater flexibility.

In order to produce living hinges that can last dozens of folds, it's important that break up the 0.2mm of layer into two 0.1mm layers that go opposite each other:
1. Set the layer height of the bottom 0.2mm to 0.1mm through a height modifier

2. Set the layer height of the top 0.2mm to 0.1mm through a height modifier, as shown:

3. Ensure that the print is oriented with the longest outer edges being parallel to the x-axis of the build plate.

4. Make the bridge direction 45 degrees.

5. Disable “Detect narrow internal solid infill” if the option exists (to disable concentric infill patterns).

Following all of the steps above should ensure that your living hinges are strong enough to survive many actuations of 180 degrees without breaking.

In order to correctly bais each of the hinges after printing, follow this video tutorial:

Technical Information

This pattern was originally developed by JingYi Yang and Zhong You at Oxford University. BYU CMR developed this printable version of their design. For in-depth technical information, see the following publications:

Yang, J, & You, Z. "Cutting and Folding Thick-Panel Miura-Ori With One DoF." Proceedings of the ASME 2023 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Volume 8: 47th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference (MR). Boston, Massachusetts, USA. August 20–23, 2023. V008T08A044. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2023-112262

Yang, J., and You, Z. (March 6, 2024). "Folding Miura-ori of Uniform Thickness with One DoF." ASME. J. Mechanisms Robotics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4065004

Learn More

To learn more about compliant mechanisms in general, see the BYU Compliant Mechanisms and Robotics (CMR) website or these books: Compliant Mechanisms, Handbook of Compliant Mechanisms