Popular origami pattern makes the mechanical switch

An origami paper-folding pattern called the square twist is the basis of a microscopic switch that Cornell physicists say could lead to origami-inspired materials and machines. Their demonstration of a square twist mechanical switch, the size of a speck of dust, is detailed , March 9. First author Jesse Silverberg, Ph.D. '14, is a former graduate student in the lab of senior author Itai Cohen, associate professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. As with a previous paper on origami mechanics, the team of theorists, physicists, materials scientists and engineers hails from Cornell; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Western New England University. For this paper, instead of exploring the global mechanics of a tessellating pattern, they focused on individual unit cells, Silverberg said. The team used experimental and computer models to develop a generic design principle for turning a square twist, which consists of squares and parallelograms, into a mechanical switch.