A Zipper Patent Sat in a Garage for 40 Years. Now It's Real
Bill Freeman, an electrical engineer at Polaroid, patented a three-sided zipper in 1985 that could transform floppy structures into rigid beams. After decades of neglect, researchers at MIT CSAIL finally realized his vision. They developed the Y-Zipper, a 3D-printed fastener that snaps flexible objects into load-bearing structures with a single pull, proving that brilliant ideas often just need time for technology to catch up.
How many brilliant ideas are sitting in someone's garage right now, waiting years for the tools and technology to finally catch up?
- probably_wrong
I suggest reading the original linked article, if only because it includes a video with the zipper in action:
- __MatrixMan__
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.
- ChrisArchitect
Meanwhile over at YKK Japan...
The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years (2025)