Highly Compressible Origami Bellows for Harsh Environments

Abstract

The use of origami-based bellows is of interest in fields where traditional metal bellows are incapable of meeting compression, mass, or flexibility constraints. Metal bellows are often used in space applications but frequently complicate spacecraft design. Origami-based bellows capable of meeting design constraints while adequately shielding sensitive spacecraft parts may be advantageous to space mechanism design. The design and testing of a highly compressible origami bellows for harsh environments is described. Several origami patterns were evaluated and the Kresling fold pattern was designed to meet constraints and selected for use in the bellows design. Origami bellows were prototyped in five different materials and tested in fatigue, thermal cycling, ablation, and radiation. Tested bellows show good fatigue life exceeding 100,000 cycles for some materials and resilience to potential harsh environmental conditions such as thermal cycling, abrasion, and high radiation. The bellows can be designed to fit within a given inner and outer diameter and stroke length depending on the design requirements. The origami bellows shows promise for space application and as an adequate replacement for current metal bellows due to its high compressibility and low mass.The design, testing, and fabrication of an origami-based bellows for microgravity drilling is presented. The benefits of origami created an opportunity for application on NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to protect sensitive parts from debris. Origami-based bellows were designed to fit spacial limitations and meet needed compression ratios. Designs have demonstrated high mass reductions, improved stroke length, greatly decreased stowed volume, improved flexibility, and reduced reaction forces in comparison with traditional metal bellows. Material and design testing demonstrated that a nylon-reinforced polyvinyl fluoride based bellows with an aramid fiber stitched seam is well suited for debris containment in space conditions. Various epoxies were able to maintain an adequate bond with polyvinyl fluoride below expected environmental temperature for bellows mounting to the ARM drill. Asymmetric compression of the bellows can occur at extreme low temperatures and is preventable by balancing stiffness within the structure. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife Amy for her support during this research, including motivation, editing, revisions, and organization. I thank my children Adelyn and Bridger for being excited about "daddy's space work." This work was made possible through foresight and trust offered to a then middle school teacher from Larry Howell and Spencer Magleby. I thank them for providing funding to pursue this work and obtain graduate credentials. I thank my mentor from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Aaron Parness for the opportunity to mature this work for space applications and for his guidance and professional advice. Additionally, I thank Brian Jensen for him mentoring. I could not have accomplished this work w...

Compliant polymer origami bellows in cryogenics

“…For more rigorous testing, the Kresling-based origami bellows was selected, as its fatigue behavior at room temperature is better characterized than the Yoshimura pattern. As such, the Kresling fold template provided by Butler et al was printed out and affixed to a desk [14,15]. Samples of BoPET were cut to fit the template, folds pre-scored with a flat-head screwdriver, and then hand-folded into shape.…”

“…Their origami bellows, constructed from materials including Mylar™ and Kapton™, all survived ≥ 10,000 actuation cycles before pinholes in the polymer film developed. These bellows were more compressible (the collapsed length of a given bellows is < 10 % of the deployed length) and less massive than traditional metal bellows [15]. In determining if the fatigue resilience of origami bellows extended from room temperature to 77 K, Reid actuated a Hexagonal bellows, fabricated from 101 µm thick Kapton™, for 500 cycles in liquid nitrogen without failure.…”

Highly Compressible Origami Bellows for Microgravity Drilling-Debris Containment

“…Previous compliant mechanism research has demonstrated origami-based bellows capable of compression ratios exceeding 1:30, compared to 1:8 for metal bellows, making them a strong candidate in bellows design for space mechanisms. 16 Use of an origami-based bellows would achieve the desired compressibility while significantly reducing mass ( Figure 4) and the parasitic reaction forces in the bellows.…”

“…7 The benefits of origami-based space design have been demonstrated as viable and effective in NASA's star shade, 8 deployable solar panels, 9 parabolic antennas, 10 pneumatic solar tracking systems, 11 inflatable structures, 12,13 the James Webb telescope, Lang's Eyeglass, 14 sunshields for space telescopes, 15 and highly compressible bellows. 16 The benefits of origami created an opportunity for application on NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The ARM would collect a multi-ton boulder and use the boulder to perform an Enhanced Gravity Tractor asteroid deflection demonstration.…”

“…20 Recent research has shown possibilities for origami-based bellows design, including various origami patterns that can be modified to give predicted results. 15,16,21,22 Figure 5 shows an origami pattern adaptable to various design constraints. This triangulated cylinder, introduced by Guest, 23-25 folds into a cylindrical shape much like a bellows.…”