Miura fold

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Crease pattern for a Miura fold. The parallelograms of this example have 84° and 96° angles.
The Miura fold (ミウラ折り Miura-ori) is a method of folding a flat surface such as a sheet of
paper into a smaller area. The fold is named for its inventor, Japanese astrophysicist Koryo
Miura.[1]
The crease patterns of the Miura fold form a tessellation of the surface by parallelograms. In
one direction, the creases lie along straight lines, with each parallelogram forming the mirror
reflection of its neighbor across each crease. In the other direction, the creases zigzag, and
each parallelogram is the translation of its neighbor across the crease. Each of the zigzag
paths of creases consists solely of mountain folds or of valley folds, with mountains alternating
with valleys from one zigzag path to the next. Each of the straight paths of creases alternates
between mountain and valley folds.[2]
The Miura fold is a form of rigid origami, meaning that the fold can be carried out by a
continuous motion in which, at each step, each parallelogram is completely flat. This property
allows it to be used to fold surfaces made of rigid materials. For instance, large solar
panel arrays for space satellites in the Japanese space program have been Miura folded
before launch and then spread out in space.[3][4] A folded Miura fold can be packed into a
compact shape, its thickness reflecting only the thickness of the folded material. Folded
material can be unpacked in one motion by pulling on its opposite ends, and likewise folded by
pushing the two ends together. In the solar array application, this property reduces the number
of motors required to unfold this shape, reducing weight and complexity.

Applications[edit]
The 1996 Space Flyer Unit deployed the 2D Array from a Miura folded configuration.[5]
The inflatable membrane structure of the SPROUT satellite is carried into space in the Miura-
folded state, and then deployed using inflatable tubes themselves carried into space in the
Octagon-folded state.[6][7]
Other potential applications of this fold include surgical devices such as stents and flat-foldable
furniture.[8]
Researchers at the University of Fribourg used the Miura fold to stack hydrogel films,
generating electricity similarly to electric eels. The Miura fold is used to cause many parts of
the stack to contact each other simultaneously.[9]
Video displaying the folding and unfolding of a Miura-creased material

References[edit]
1. ^ Forbes, Peter (2006), The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists are
Taking a Leaf from Nature's Book, Harper Perennial, pp. 181–
195.
2. ^ Bain, Ian (1980), "The Miura-Ori map", New Scientist.
Reproduced in British Origami, 1981, and online at the British
Origami Society web site.
3. ^ Miura, K. (1985), Method of packaging and deployment of
large membranes in space, Tech. Report 618, The Institute of
Space and Astronautical Science
4. ^ Nishiyama, Yutaka (2012), "Miura folding: Applying origami to
space exploration" (PDF), International Journal of Pure and
Applied Mathematics, 79 (2): 269–279.
5. ^ "2D Array".
6. ^ "SPROUT Nano Satellite Project"
7. ^ "SPROUT (Space Research on Unique Technology)". (archive
URL).
8. ^ "Designing a pop-up future: Simple origami fold may hold the
key to designing pop-up furniture, medical devices and scientific
tools", Science News, Science Daily, January 26, 2016.
9. ^ Mayer, Michael; Yang, Jerry; Shtein, Max; Sept, David;
VanRenterghem, Gloria; Lamoureux, Aaron; Guha, Anirvan;
Schroeder, Thomas B. H. (December 2017). "An electric-eel-
inspired soft power source from stacked
hydrogels". Nature. 552 (7684): 214–
218. doi:10.1038/nature24670. ISSN 1476-
4687. PMID 29239354.

External links[edit]
• Origami science
Categories:
• Paper folding
• Japanese inventions

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• This page was last edited on 12 May 2019, at 06:50 (UTC).
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