<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Living hinges are non-assemblable flexible joints that allow the relative rotation of two adjacent rigid parts through bending. Conventionally, living hinges are single-material designs made through injection moulding, for example. In order to reduce mould complexity, flexure hinges have a restrictive design. However, 3D printing technologies, such as Fused Filament Fabrication - FFF, can provide new opportunities for hinge development, allowing more design freedom and a wide range of materials. This paper focused on exploring and testing various multi-material hinges designs with bidirectional folding made of compatible and low-compatible thermoplastic materials. The resulting designs have corrugated structures and shape-changing interfaces, each with multiple solutions. They were printed as samples made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) for the rigid bodies and with thermoplastic co-polyesters (TPC) for the hinge. The results show that corrugated and shapechanging structures can be used as a design solution for flexure hinges.</p>
</abstract>

Living hinges are non-assemblable flexible joints that allow the relative rotation of two adjacent rigid parts through bending. Conventionally, living hinges are single-material designs made through injection moulding, for example. In order to reduce mould complexity, flexure hinges have a restrictive design. However, 3D printing technologies, such as Fused Filament Fabrication - FFF, can provide new opportunities for hinge development, allowing more design freedom and a wide range of materials. This paper focused on exploring and testing various multi-material hinges designs with bidirectional folding made of compatible and low-compatible thermoplastic materials. The resulting designs have corrugated structures and shape-changing interfaces, each with multiple solutions. They were printed as samples made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) for the rigid bodies and with thermoplastic co-polyesters (TPC) for the hinge. The results show that corrugated and shapechanging structures can be used as a design solution for flexure hinges.

Design and Testing of Multi-Material Shape-Changing Flexure Hinges for Fused Filament Fabrication

“Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași

Department of Machine Manufacturing Technology

Ansbach University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Technology

Bulletin of the Polytechnic Institute of Iași. Machine constructions Section

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Living hinges are non-assemblable flexible joints that allow the relative rotation of two adjacent rigid parts through bending. Conventionally, living hinges...

Design and Testing of Multi-Material Shape-Changing Flexure Hinges for Fused Filament Fabrication

Publié en ligne: 07 nov. 2022

Pages: 19 - 30

Reçu: 28 juin 2022

Accepté: 25 juil. 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bipcm-2022-0022

Mots clés
Multi-material hinge, Two-way folding, Corrugated structure, Shape-changing interfaces, Fused Filament Fabrication

© 2022 Vasile Ermolai et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Design and Testing of Multi-Material Shape-Changing Flexure Hinges for Fused Filament Fabrication

Publié en ligne: 07 nov. 2022

Pages: 19 - 30

Reçu: 28 juin 2022

Accepté: 25 juil. 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bipcm-2022-0022

Mots clésMulti-material hinge, Two-way folding, Corrugated structure, Shape-changing interfaces, Fused Filament Fabrication

© 2022 Vasile Ermolai et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
Multi-material hinge, Two-way folding, Corrugated structure, Shape-changing interfaces, Fused Filament Fabrication