The Origami Forum

Hi there,

I am interested to know how people would characterise different materials used for folding, and if there are opinions on whether these aspects are quantifiable.... i.e. is a material that holds a crease more important than one which is smooth?

If anyone knows about the Föppl–von Kármán number as well I really want to know if this truly is a 'crucial material property' as it states in this article http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v5 ... 14588.html

not interested in how beautiful the paper is sorry!

And sorry if Kirigami is a no-go area on this forum

Loool this is one I have never heard before. This is an interesting parameter and I hadn't thought about considering a folding medium in this way before. But then, where is the 'sweet spot' for an ideal medium.. do you want a material with perfect in-plane rigidity and flimsy bending rigidity (I doubt it) or the opposite (even worse)?

I think paper is pretty great.. I do like a nice stiff paper, I'm not sure I've considered the ratio of in-plane stiffness to out-of-plane bending stiffness before, I guess I like both? But as far as using graphene goes, that is currently a non-starter. It is difficult to make, almost inconceivably thin, and it isn't going to provide the "memory" needed to make folds and marks and carry out the process of origami. That being said, if you somehow make graphene origami, I am truly humbled, because I expect it will have to be very very small.

To get back to your original question I believe that in the Origami USA on-line publication, The Fold, they do a pretty good job of selecting some 'metrics' for judging folding materials (in their case, paper only, but I see no reason why you couldn't extend the concepts..). Tensile strength, 'memory', 'tooth'/roughness, more arbitrary qualities like suitability for modulars or shaped models, etc..