Fascinating. The famous mantis shrimp uses a helical layering structure that makes its “club” stronger than airplane materials. I wonder if one of the slicers could be adapted to print using this style of layering? Any takers?
Original Article: http://phys.org/news/2014-04-mantis-shrimp-stronger-airplanes.html
Mantis shrimp explained: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/2014/3-mantisshrimp.jpg
Shouldn’t be difficult. It doesn’t look that different from what we’re already doing for solid infill layers. We’re just rotating 90 degrees each layer. I wonder if we would get better results rotating the infill angle by 90/n degrees per layer, where n is the specified number of solid layers.
Prints area already pretty strong in this respect, though. Where they’re weakest is the inter-layer adhesion between sparsely filled layers, and I don’t imagine this would help as much for that, though you might be able to fiddle with the algorithm so that the angle of pattern rotation between layers would bond better than current strategies…
From my understanding the benefit is in shock absorbtion to prevernt shattering. A printed part that undergoes shock may delaminate if the sheering force is applied accross the grain of the layers. I would speculate the benefit of the helical structure is that the sheering force that would cause two layers to delaminate would be disapated by the rotated layers around it like twisitng a sping. I don’t think layer adhesion is the key benefit.
Cottonwood trees have a spiral growth pattern that greatly improve strength, The logs a very hard to split.
Love to see a slicer option for that