It Took 40 Years for Technology To Catch Up to This Revolutionary Zipper Design

MIT CSAIL researchers revived Bill Freeman’s 1985 three-sided zipper idea as a printable Y-zipper for flexible-rigid shape changes.

The automated design tool lets tents, casts, and robots snap into rigid forms on demand while remaining easy to assemble and adjust.

The approach could make camping gear, wearable medical devices, and robotic systems simpler to manufacture with tunable stiffness.