Multi-Stable Deployable Textile Structures for Automotive Trim
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current automotive components, such as trim panels and roof reinforcement panels, face challenges in packaging and shipping due to their multi-dimensional shapes, which increase packaging volume and costs, while existing technologies do not effectively utilize deployable structures with multiple stable states to simplify installation and assembly.
Innovation Solution
Deployable structures with a polymeric exoskeleton printed onto a knitted textile substrate, featuring a compliant skeletal framework that transitions between multiple stable states, allowing for compact packaging and easy expansion to provide structural support, utilizing additive manufacturing and techniques like origami or kirigami for articulating features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If components are manufactured with multi-dimensional shapes to provide structural support, then strength and structural functionality are improved, but packaging volume increases leading to higher shipping costs
Solution Approach 1:
The component transitions from a flat, planar state during shipping to a three-dimensional deployed state during use. The polymeric exoskeleton is designed with articulating features that allow the component to dynamically change its configuration, enabling compact packaging while maintaining structural functionality when deployed.
Solution Approach 2:
The articulating framework allows the component to fold and nest into a compact form factor for shipping, similar to how nested dolls store within each other. The multi-stable states enable the component to collapse into itself, reducing packaging volume significantly while maintaining the ability to assume its functional three-dimensional shape when installed.
2Stability of the object's composition
If rigid frameworks are used to provide structural stability, then strength is improved, but device complexity and difficulty of assembly increase
Solution Approach 1:
The framework is segmented into multiple articulating sections connected by joints, allowing each segment to move independently. This segmentation enables the structure to achieve stability through geometric configuration rather than rigid connections, simplifying assembly while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The component is designed to self-assemble into its stable three-dimensional configuration once deployed from its flat shipping state. The articulating features and multi-stable characteristics allow the structure to automatically find its equilibrium positions without requiring complex assembly procedures or specialized tools.
3Strength
If components are designed with fixed three-dimensional shapes, then structural functionality is improved, but adaptability to different installation configurations is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The component incorporates dynamic articulating features that allow it to transition between multiple stable states, enabling adaptation to various installation configurations. The polymeric exoskeleton can assume different three-dimensional forms while maintaining structural functionality, providing versatility in installation options.
Solution Approach 2:
The multi-stable deployable structure serves multiple functions: it provides structural support in deployed states and compact packaging in its flat state. The ability to transition between configurations makes the component universally applicable to different installation scenarios while maintaining its primary structural function.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables components to maintain low packaging volume during shipping and distribution while simplifying installation by selectively expanding to predetermined shapes, reducing costs and enhancing assembly efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a compliant skeletal framework that transitions between multiple stable states
Implementation Method 2
an elastic substrate fabricated with a textile (knitted) sheet
Data Source
AI summary
Presented are deployable structures having multi-stable-state characteristics using skeletal architectures mounted onto textile backings, methods for making/using such structures, and vehicle components having bistable characteristics provided by polymeric exoskeletons printed onto textile substrates. A multi-stable-state deployable structure includes an elastic substrate fabricated from a (knitted) textile sheet, and an articulating (polymeric) framework mounted on the knitted textile sheet. The articulating framework and textile sheet structurally cooperate to transition from a first stable state, in which the deployable structure maintains a substantially planar shape, to a second stable state, in which the deployable structure maintains a first multidimensional topography, and from the second state to a third stable state, in which the deployable structure maintains a second multidimensional topography distinct from the first multidimensional topography. The articulating framework may include an elongated spine sandwiched between first and second sets of ribs, and a frame circumscribing the spine and ribs.