alt.hn

7/22/2026 at 3:37:25 PM

A Zipper Patent Sat in a Garage for 40 Years. Now It's Real

 https://www.yankodesign.com/2026/05/31/a-zipper-patent-sat-in-a-garage-for-40-years-now-its-real/

by crescit_eundo

7/22/2026 at 4:46:04 PM

It brings to mind satellites assembling themselves in space. Send up a tightly packed box of spaghetti and extrude it into the desired physical shape upon arrival in orbit. For increased rigidity, paint with a solar pumped laser to weld the links together.

by __MatrixMan__

7/22/2026 at 5:00:40 PM

Just sell me the tent already!

by fragmede

7/22/2026 at 5:15:41 PM

no kidding. it was the last demo in the video, but my first reaction seeing the zippers-instead-tent-poles demo was, "oh, that's going to be huge." weight and "how well does it handle wind?" are concerns, but i could totally see "100% zipper" tents on the market by the end of the year.

by hugs

7/22/2026 at 7:12:29 PM

They never show the fully packaged version of the tent, though. It looks like even in their non-rigid state they're too rigid to be folded up easily and carelessly into a compact shape.

by dinfinity

7/22/2026 at 5:34:44 PM

This makes me think of microtubules.

by UltraSane

7/22/2026 at 3:57:56 PM

> ... the Y-Zipper, a 3D-printed, three-sided fastener that can snap a floppy, flexible structure into a rigid, load-bearing beam with one smooth pull.

Not a mechanical engineer, but I'd figure both the "rigid" and "load-bearing" aspects will be far poorer than conventional beams of the same size and weight.

by bell-cot

7/22/2026 at 4:37:36 PM

This might be one of those cases where it solves for problem spaces that aren't being considered yet.

What I mean by that is in the case of soft robotics, it was developments in manufacturing techniques for the inflated leading edge of kitesurfing kites, that unlocked the capabilities to make soft robots more feasible.

by radiorental

7/22/2026 at 4:14:06 PM

Depends on the material that is being used and application. I could see this being highly useful for tents and similar fabric structures. I probably would not build a satellite solar panel structure/frame with them (atomic oxygen is a nasty critter) but for some lightweight terrestrial applications I can see much potential.

by lightedman

7/22/2026 at 4:19:43 PM

Interesting, which material?

by clickety_clack

7/22/2026 at 4:25:01 PM

For example, if you used PLA you'd get a stiffer, more mechanically-rigid structure in the zipped-up state. If you used TPU, you'd get a more flexible and elastic structure. I'd want PLA for tent seams and TPU for the door zipper.

by lightedman

7/22/2026 at 4:48:50 PM

Is PLA stiffer somehow in this state than it would be as a conventional beam?

by clickety_clack

7/22/2026 at 5:03:31 PM

I don't want door zippers, I want a door!

by fragmede

7/22/2026 at 4:27:26 PM

This reads like it’s been machine generated.

by Modified3019

7/22/2026 at 6:08:24 PM

i thought so as well; my eyes were beginning to glaze over. the MIT article talking about it is a much better read.

by mangogogo