Origami Inductors: Rapid Folding of 3-D Coils on a Laser Cutter

Making Light Work of Metal Bending: Laser Forming in Rapid Prototyping

“…Critical to the success of the laser forming process is appropriate coupling of the laser energy to the material being formed. This coupling can be achieved by selecting the appropriate laser wavelength that corresponds to the absorption maximum of the substrate [75,88], by using a much higher power laser, so sufficient energy is absorbed by the substrate even with low absorptivity, or by using an absorbing coating layer that is matched with the laser wavelength being used ( Figure 6) [85,89]. Metals thicker than 100 nm are optically opaque [90] and do not transmit appreciable amounts of light, so the metal substrates that have been used in laser forming will primarily either reflect or absorb the laser energy.…”

“…The early reports focused on using high power (>1 kW) lasers [40,60,61,70,71,[98][99][100][101][102][103], as the intent was to bend large sheets as part of the ship building process [35]. The laser forming of thinner substrates enables the use of lower power (<100 W) lasers, such as those found in commercial metal marking laser systems [57,63,67,76,85,88,93,104].…”

“…Typically, laser power is kept low and speeds high to ensure that the substrate is being bent by the TGM, generating reliable bending toward the laser. As the TGM only generates a bend of one or two degrees per pass or less [38,74,101], many passes are needed to create structures with large bend angles, sometimes taking as many as 150 passes to produce a full 90 degree bend [88].…”

Self‐Folding Metal Origami

“…Laser formed inductor during fabrication (c–h) and testing (i). Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2018, IEEE.…”

“…Laser formed origami inductors are notable examples of this approach, by using a laser cutter for rapid folding of electrical components. With laser patterning, it is possible to both cut and self‐fold from blank metal feedstock.…”