Implementation of origami in additive manufacturing

The thesis was carried out by Olov Lundgren Kuosmonen and Lola Naraha Jönsson together with AMEXCI AB which is a research company in additive manufacturing. The students have studied the possibilities of implementing origami in additive manufacturing in form of a concept development for an antenna reflector dish. The concept that has been developed in this thesis is not a functional prototype but can serve as a source of inspiration for how origami can be implemented on a reflector dish, using additive manufacturing as manufacturing process. The antenna reflector dish has a diameter of around 650 mm and a depth of around 95 mm but the goal is to be able to fold it in a state which will fit in a printer with smaller dimensions. The process of the concept development includes all the steps that was necessary to find a solution which will fit in a SLS-printer named EOS P 396 with a build volume of 340x340x600 mm. After the reflector dish has been printed it should be able to be deployed to its usable state. To find the solution, a concept generation using brainstorming was executed for the origami structure, origami mechanism and mechanical solution. For some of the origami structures that was generated during brainstorming a method called unfolding polyhedral was used to find the origami mechanism for these origami structures. Thereafter, an evaluation occurred with an elimination matrix and through manufacturing the concepts with deposition printer. The concepts that met the requirements of the evaluation was further developed for optimization. The result is an antenna reflector dish that consisted of 24 square panels and one octagonal panel in the middle which met all the set requirements except one. The reflector dish was able to be folded into a state where it became 2,4 times smaller in size. The concept thus fit in the 3D-printer but without working origami mechanisms due to complications with the mechanical solutions after printing them