Paper strips driven design: Application on doubly curved surfaces

Abstract

In this paper, we address the challenge of overcoming the problem of developing doubly curved surfaces in product design. Product design uses two kinds of surfaces, developable surfaces and non-developable surfaces, which are also called singly and doubly curved surfaces, respectively. A developable surface has zero Gaussian curvature at all points, while a non-developable surface has non-zero Gaussian curvature at least in some region. Surfaces of many product design object are commonly created as doubly curved shapes to meet requirements of structure and aesthetic. The problem of creating the planar development of 3D surfaces with double curvature in the product design depends on the shape of the surface and the material of the surface cover. Therefore, the method of deriving a pattern is different when external forces are used in order to generate the plane patterns such as paper strips from the case when the plane shape can stretch or deform to fit on the 3D surface. Given a three-dimensional object surface, the first step of the fabrication process is flattening or planar development of this surface into a planar shape so that the manufacturer can not only determine the initial shape of the object but also estimate the strain distribution required to form the shape depending on a material. The paper is analysing and rationalizing doubly curved surface of a given shape by multiple strips of paper glued onto a surface. Results are addressing possibilities of achieving an overall smooth surface and developing a model for the generation of curvature continuous surfaces composed of paper strip surfaces, as well as generating alternative solutions that are in the domain of contemporary product design. The paper illustrates usability and different variations of the proposed design.