Modular 3D Printing:
marriage of 3D printing and the traditional Japanese construction
This page describes the marriage of 3D printing and
the 'Tsugite'(継手)technology developed and used in the
traditional Japanese construction method(伝統構法).
Papers:
-
[pdf]
Kazunori Ueda:
Interlocking 3D-printed bars, trusses and space frames to build arbitrarily large structures.
engrXiv.org, 2022, DOI:https://doi.org/10.31224/2338.
It is shown that the 'Tsugite' (joint) technology used in the
traditional Japanese construction method turns to be highly useful and
practical in making small 3D-printed modules that can then be
assembled to build arbitrarily large structures made up of bars and
trusses. Of numerous variations of the Tsugite technology, we choose
and focus on Okkake Daisen Tsugi, one of the most widely used methods
for joining beams and columns, and study how it can be scaled down in
such a way that it can be printed with low-cost FDM 3D printers using
PETG and PLA filaments. Our tensile test shows that a 4.8 mm square
bar with an Okkake Daisen Tsugi joint comes with a breaking load of
160-210 N. We further applied our idea to build arbitrarily large,
functional 2D trusses and 3D trusses (space frames), which are
expected to open up many new applications.
Things:
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[thingiverse]
Customizable "Okkake Daisen Tsugi" joint for firm interlocking of 3D-printed bars
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[thingiverse]
Customizable and extensible truss
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[thingiverse]
Customizable and extensible space frame
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[github]
OpenSCAD files for those modular things
Last update: November 24, 2022
ueda at ueda.info.waseda.ac.jp