folding wood

flexible sheets of wood

dutch digital manufacturing company snijlab has developed new possibilities of working with wood. using laser cutting technique they make tiny cuts in wooden sheets that allow it to be flexible. once processed the wood can be fully bent in both directions without breaking.

snijlab makes wooden booklets with the bendable wood technique. the cover is a single sheet of wood cut from a beautiful birch plywood and finished with a clear varnish. cuts in the middle allow the cover to be flexed open and really; it’s only wood! a tiny clamp, made of the same material, holds a standard a7 writing block inside.

with this design we want to show the great possibilities of digital manufacturing. by using manufacturing techniques like this in products it is possible to make all product features in only one production step and a single material. only one machine is needed and material supply is easy. this cuts down production effort and logistics and also makes for a beautifully simple product. because a laser cutter is a fairly common tool these products could also be manufactured locally, all over the world. that saves transport. by working from flat materials the products can also be flat-packed, saving even more resources and costs on shipping. these kind of advantages make digital production a great new way of making things.

booklets with flexible wood joint