This Screw-Free Furniture Is Easier to Assemble Than IKEA
The biggest drawback to a lot of IKEA furniture just might have to be the assembly. No really, therapists have even prescribed IKEA furniture assembly as a sort of hands-on couple’s therapy session. So what if you could bypass all those conflicts and communication fails and general drama and just get the cheap furniture? Nope, it’s not too good to be true; it’s a concept from a team of researchers at Nanyang Technological University that is designing a software to create 3D printed furniture pieces that fit together like a puzzle: no screws, glue or swearing involved.
The trick to designing furniture that clicks together and doesn’t slide apart all comes down to an algorithm. The software, designed by a worldwide team, uses math to tweak each piece of furniture to come up with a way to assemble them in a particular order so that by the end you are (theoretically) just left with one “key” piece at the end that holds the whole thing together. Once you’re ready to move, flip the furniture over, remove the “key” and the whole things slides apart for easy moving.
Without getting into the nitty gritty of the math details, this video perfectly illustrates how the furniture would work. You’ll never have to worry about missing screws or not having the right tool when you bring your new table, chair, etc home. As long as you remember that final key piece, nothing will collapse. Once the team works out how to deal with the daily wear and tear, they hope to put the software to work on real furniture, ideally through a collaboration with IKEA. Oh yes. Now we’re talking.
What do you think of this easy DIY furniture? Would you trust a table that “slides” together? Talk to us in the comments below!
(h/t Gizmodo)
