LaCir: A Multilayered Laser-cuttable Material to Co-fabricate Circuitry and Structural Components

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

Documents

Rapid prototyping is an important tool for designers, but many fabrication techniques are slow and create bulky components requiring multiple machines and processes to achieve desired device shape and electronic functionality. Prior work explored ways to ease fabricating shapes or designing electronics, but we focus on creating shape and electrical pathways at the same time from a single material and machine. LaCir leverages a three-layered, laser-cuttable material to incorporate circuits into the structural substrate of the design using laser cutters. Our substrate features a layer of conductive material sandwiched between thermoplastic sheets, allowing designers to cut electrical traces and assembleable, 3D object geometry in a single pass. We evaluate different composite materials, weighing their cuttability, ease of assembly, and conductivity; we also show using fully laser-cut joints as structural and electrical connections. We demonstrate LaCir's flexibility through several example artifacts.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems
Number of pages10
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc.
Publication date2024
Article number340
ISBN (Electronic)9798400703300
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024 - Hybrid, Honolulu, United States
Duration: 11 May 202416 May 2024

Conference

Conference2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems, CHI 2024
LandUnited States
ByHybrid, Honolulu
Periode11/05/202416/05/2024
SponsorACM SIGCHI

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s)

    Research areas

  • Circuit Joinery, Circuitry, Digital Fabrication, Laser Cutter, Multimaterial Stack, Prototyping

ID: 394531185