Touch-n-Go: Designing and Fabricating Touch Fastening Structures by FDM 3D Printing

Abstract

Touch fastening structures are widely used to quickly assemble and disassemble an object with multiple parts. However, such structures are under-explored in the context of additive manufacturing for personal fabrication. We proposed Touch-n-Go, a method for designing touch-fastening structures with customizable mechanical properties such as holding capacities or shearing strength. Additionally, the customization of fastener patterns enables both static and dynamic connections, and the dynamic connections grant the freedom of rotation and translation. To facilitate the customization process, we developed a design tool that allows the integration of fastening structures on the surface of a 3D-printed object. Furthermore, we validated the fastening properties of Touch-n-Go through a series of experiments, and the result exhibits performances that match or even surpass of-the-shelf fasteners. Finally, we demonstrated the implementation of Touch-n-Go through a collection of applications.