self-folding 3D tagged posts

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get flat, plastic sheets to curve into shapes such as spheres, tubes or bowls. Credit: Amber Hubbard

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get two-dimensional plastic sheets to curve into three-dimensional (3D) structures. The advance builds on earlier work by the same team, which focused on self-folding 3D structures. The key advance here is that rather than having the plastic fold along sharp lines – into polygonal shapes such as cubes or pyramids – the plastics bend and curve.

Researchers Michael Dickey and Prof. Jan Genzer f NC State, were early leaders in the field of self-folding 3D structures...