Product Design

Fiberglass Material Study

Tubular Knitting: Composites Challenge / Spring 2018

Type/

Collaborative Material Fabrication Project

Members/

Yuheng Zhu, Xiaohang Yan, William Qian, Jingxin Yang, Jingjing Liu

Personal contribution includes the design development, fiberglass material fabrication, physical study models, material load bearing test, final model assembly.

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This project is an independent study on the potential of fiberglass as a structural material, directed by the faculty of the Cornell Robotic Construction Lab (RCL). It won first place in the 2018 AIA/ACMA Composites in Architecture Design Challenge.

In contrast to the traditional fiberglass application process, “tubular knitting” studies from the textile/fabric industry, and utilizes an off-the-shelf knitting mechanism to perform Fiberglass rovings. Balloons are inserted temporarily to inflate the tubular knit. After resin impregnation, the balloons were deflated, leaving a cured structure with organic porosity, able to provide the support of wood at 1/10 the weight in a small stool demonstrator.