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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

In packaging, cushion barriers are needed to provide content protection in a disposable form. However, conventional cushioning materials and designs typically require a large volume, which decreases shipping and storage efficiency and increases environmental impact. Especially in e-commerce, where “shipping and handling” occur at an exceedingly rapid pace in large-scale operations, many packages suffer from being over or under packed through the fulfilment process. To solve this issue, this paper presents deployable kirigami-based cushion designs that can be collapsed or deployed depending on the distribution situation. Kirigami is a variation of origami that involves both cutting and folding of paper. The advantage of this design is that the kirigami cushion can be applied on the outside of a shipping container, instead of inside. Therefore, the shipping container itself can be more compact and the cushioning can be accessed and deployed when it is needed. The deployable kirigami cushion design was evaluated using compression and vertical impact tests, and the testing results are presented.

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