Interlocking folded plates-integral mechanical attachment for structural wood panels

Abstract

Automatic joinery has become a common technique for the jointing of beams in timber framing and roofing. It has revived traditional, integral joinery, such as mortise-and-tenon connections. Just recently, the automatic fabrication of traditional cabinetmaking joints has been introduced for the assembly of timber panel shell structures. First prototypes have been assembled with such integrated joints for the alignment and assembly of components, while additional adhesive bonding was used for the load-bearing connection. However, glued joints cannot be assembled on site due to lack of controlled conditions, thus resulting in several design constraints. In this paper, we propose the use of dovetail joints without adhesive bonding in the case study of a timber folded-plate structure. Through their single-degree-of-freedom (1DOF) geometry, these joints block the relative movement of two parts in all but one direction. This presents the opportunity for an interlocking connection of plates, as well as a challenge for the assembly of folded-plate shells, where multiple, non-parallel edges per plate have to be jointed simultaneously.