SRM Institute of Science and Technology · 2012–2016 · Engineering Foundations

Saree-Folding Machine

Student Engineer

A mechanical folding sequence for fabric: entry, alignment, actuation and a folded result. Fabric does not behave like a textbook rigid body, which was the lesson.

Saree-Folding Machine — concept visualization — Concept visualization. An original render of the idea, not a photograph of the actual site or system.

↳ Part of Early Engineering and Prototyping

Student Engineer.

A machine to fold a saree: fabric entry, alignment, actuation and a folded result. It sounds simple until you learn that six metres of fabric obeys none of the assumptions a textbook makes about rigid bodies. The mechanism had to be designed around how cloth actually moves, not how a diagram says it should.

It remains one of my favourite early projects because it taught mechanism design through a genuinely awkward material. Every product I have manufactured since got easier by comparison.

Status — Academic project, 2012–2016.

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