machine for pre creasing origami

[wuchisg]

I m studying machine engineering. For my school i wan t to do a contraption for drawing folding lines. , for pre creasing the paper. I have 200h
I do it for complex origamis like the frog or the turtle from robert j lang or Tesselation pattern. I don t like the pre creasing for tesselations, i want the process more efficient.

The contraption or is like a drawing board but have different requirements.

-I have to divide a sheet in 2 3 5 7 8 9
- on different points on the sheet i want to be able to do a star (360°/16), for making 4 times bird shape on one sheet like the mug from Robert J lang.
-Not every line go throw the hole paper.
there will be some claps to hold a sheet
- it will be great when the main board is transparent, then you can put the crease pattern under it and see what you want to draw.

What are you thinking of my idea?
Do you have some additions?
Do you know something similar?

[snakeixir]

well..... its way past 200 hrs now but i love the idea. robert lang has a program called reference finder, that can divide the square into any number you want with only 3-4 steps

[sheeptortoiseorigami]

Wow, that’s awesome! I can definitely understand why you want such an efficient process. It would be the dream to have a machine that could cut down the time and complexity of origami designs. I think it sounds like a great idea, and I’m sure that in the next 5 years, AI will be able to give you all the tools you need to make that contraption a reality!

[RSchmidt]

I have been thinking about this idea for some time.

A machine like xTool M1 lasercutter/vinyl cutter is a possibility. It uses both laser and knife tool, so the knife could be replaced with an embossing tip, and the tessellation grid could be embossed on paper and then folded. This shoulf be much faster and probably more precise. Problem with this solution is that the xTool M1 is roughly 1,100 USD.

Another possibility is to get a Silhouette Cameo 4, which is plotter/cutter which is around 300 USD. Problem is that the width of the work space on the standard model is just 12"/30cm. There is also a Plus version which has a 15"/38cm wide work space and a Pro version which has a 24"/60cm wide work space. The Plus model cost around 400 USD and the Pro model is around 500 USD.
The Pro version would be my choice if I had to choose, as a tessellation grid on a hexagon with a 64x64x64 grid, will have to be at least 35cm wide on the short diameter.

I thought about building my own penplotter from videos I found online where I can 3D print all plastic parts myself, but the various parts (stepper motors, stepper drivers, Arduino UNO, linear guides etc.) will cost around 500 USD, which makes it more expensive to build than buying a Silhouette Cameo 4 Pro of the shelf.

These are my thoughts on this topic. You can use a laser at very low power to etch precreases into paper, but in my experience it requires great control over laser power output and also what type of paper you are using or else the paper will not just be etched with the precreases but partly cut, so it will rip when you try to fold it.

Hope others out there have some thoughts on this topic of a "precrease machine" to reduce the monotomy of folding tessellation grids etc.