Welcome to the virtual presentation of FlexTruss:
A Computational Threading Method for
Multi-material, Multi-form and Multi-use Prototyping
I am Jiaji Li, and I will be presenting
our team from international design institute of Zhejiang university
Conventional 3D printing models, with like PLA or ABS,
are difficult to shape change physically
FlexTruss is designed to make flexible prototype
with 3D printers and assembled by threading.
As it combines linear material,
it expands the possibility of physical properties and provides new HCI methods
by recent works, a hot topic of fabrication
is to enable users to receive continuous feedback
Compared to existing methods,
we adapt the advantages of
Low-Fi Fabrication, Interactive Fabrication
and construction kits for quick prototyping
Our parametric design tool creates instructive,
and sensible design by allowing users to
on-demand modify with the final artifact.
let us take Stanford bunny as an example
to introduce our workflow
Firstly, virtual model is imported and simplified,
the density can be adjusted.
Truss-shaped nodes would then be generated on every point of it.
An Euler path visits every node would link them together.
Then we 3D print these nodes with any conventional printer.
The threading process takes a while,
but the labels on nodes would help users to finish it.
We can see that the FlexTruss bunny is deformable for any on-demand shape changing.
Besides the type of nodes on bunny,
we developed more modifiable semi-flexible nodes for compromising object
and moreover, fully-flexible.
In addition, we also made fully-fixed type as a solid truss without threading.
For example, replacing the nodes on bunny's ears with fully-flexible nodes.
This modification gives the ears a softer touch that allow deformation in more angles.
More wiring and threading materials can be integrated with FlexTruss,
including wire, elastic rope and even optical fiber.
For flexible type of nodes, we can largely shorten the manufacturing time
by replacing pipes with other materials such as acrylic, PLA or soft rubber
In theory, FlexTruss can achieve any simplified shapes from a digital model.
we tested multiple fundamental geometries to demonstrate the feasibility
Then I will show some applications to indicate what we can really do with FlexTruss
The FlexTruss workflow enables designers
to create on-demand fashion pieces.
The video shows the example of a multi-use handbag.
Users can reshape the handbag to fit a phone or book or other stuff
Threading with elastic rope, we completed a wearable device design.
We made the prototype by reconstructing a wristband with 40 nodes.
The artifact can be worn by users with different wrist sizes
and deformed according to the action.
We also made an arm band with and semi-flexible nodes
Embedding an optical fiber, this prototype can give
real-time feedback on the wearer's gesture.
We adopt SLA printing to explore the minimum size of FlexTruss.
We completed a flexible ring by reconstructing it with ten tiny nodes.
The video shows that the FlexTruss jewelry can be stretched and worn without breakage.
Our final application is a clothing consisting of three segments.
A crop top can be extended into a hip-legth vest
more over, be further extended as a dress
In conclusion, shape-changing, physical property-changing,
and media embedding features enable our design tool to generate
multi-material, multi-form, and multi-use applications.
We look forward to extending our method to future sustainable fabrication.
Thank you for watching.