redrawn

Description

Shaped sheet metal is a structural component of many products. While recycling recovers the raw material, the shape – produced with considerable energy input – is lost. However, the irregular occurrence and complex geometries of sheet metal parts make industrial processing or reuse difficult.

This work developed a system to generate individual products from locally available sheet metal parts. Geometric features of the digitally captured sheets are extracted and stored in an inventory database. Designers can model target geometries using a design interface, thereby controlling the algorithmic aggregation. Generated instructions enable the disassembly and reassembly of the sheet metal parts using simple hand tools.

Using an inventory database, a design interface, and a sample product, the approach is demonstrated as scalable and transferable to other materials.