11. Soft robotics#
This week we worked on the soft robotics inflatable. We’ve tried different tecniques.
Inflatable from thermoadhesive vinyl#
Using the thermoadesive vynil is quite easy. It is possible to vynil cut it(NOT LASER CUT!!!) but it is also very simple to cut it with scissors. The vynil comes in sheets or rolls, it has two sides:
- a mat one => the stichy one;
- a glossy one => the exterior part;
You can use an iron or a thermo press for stich the two parts together, but be careful to not melt the plastic on the iron/press surface. To not let this happen just put a sheet of baking paper in between.
1. Cut your vynil;
2. Put the baking paper between the two sheets of vynil where you don’t want that it will stitch
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Inflatable from Latex#
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Molded and casted inflatable#
It is possibe to create a molded and casted inflatable. It’s possible to have a 3D printed or laser cutted mold. I choose to laser cut my mold since it would have been faster.
Steps:#
- Design your mold. I did a 2D design on illustrator.
- Create the mold.
- Prepare the material to be casted. I used Ecoflex.
Cecilia’s steps explenation | “ingredients” - Spray two times an “easy release spray” and brush between the two spray. Be sure that every little pice of the mold is covered.
- Mesure the same quantity of element A and B in two different cups.
- Pour A and B together in a C container.
- Pour the ecoflex from a spot of the mold. Do not pour the material moving all around the mold. Continue pouring in the same spot and let the silicon fill all the mold, this will help to avoid bubble creation.
- Pour a lille bit of silicon into a flet surface(always remember to spray the easy release), like acrilic. You can also put textile.
Useful links#
Love, share, download the file here!#
You can download the acrilic mold file here!
You can download the vynil inflatables files here!