An old patent inspired the new "Y-zipper", a three-sided fastener
news.mit.eduhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWig98GVIno
https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/mit-researchers-rev...
https://www.yankodesign.com/2026/05/31/a-zipper-patent-sat-i... Zippers are usually attached to something. Is this design practical? What would it be used for? With this zipping mechanism, can anything be attached? Edit: Apparently I stopped watching the video too early. They demonstrate some uses where at max only one of the three sides can be attached to something, and it is used to create a rigid structure rather than joining multiple surfaces. The most interesting use demonstrated (IMO), is a tent with no tent poles, but it doesn't look like it would hold up to any significant weather, and would probably take up just as much space and weight as tent poles. Poles. The video shows a tent they set up just by zipping up the y zipper. It brings to mind satellites assembling themselves in space. Send up a tightly packed box of spaghetti and extrude it into the desired physical shape upon arrival in orbit. For increased rigidity, paint with a solar pumped laser to weld the links together. > For increased rigidity, paint with a solar pumped laser to weld the links together. Or unseal purified metal surfaces, press them together, and use vacuum diffusion welding. With enough time and/or sunlight, it can happen on its own. Extremely similar to a rigid chain actuator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_chain_actuator Just sell me the tent already! no kidding. it was the last demo in the video, but my first reaction seeing the zippers-instead-tent-poles demo was, "oh, that's going to be huge." weight and "how well does it handle wind?" are concerns, but i could totally see "100% zipper" tents on the market by the end of the year. It's definitely pretty whiz bang but I'm curious how it would hold up to the dirt and grime of a backpacking trip. I'm also not convinced it is any better or lighter than poles (which can be pretty light with the right materials...) Even if it weren't lighter, it might be faster to set up and take down. They never show the fully packaged version of the tent, though. It looks like even in their non-rigid state they're too rigid to be folded up easily and carelessly into a compact shape. I could see it easily being
rolled up into a compact if long tube which would be a lot easier to transport. wow this looks incredible. love learning about this kind of stuff— no shortage of clever ideas just waiting out there in the ether for someone to make work! This makes me think of microtubules. Meanwhile over at YKK Japan... The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years (2025) I suggest reading the original linked article, if only because it includes a video with the zipper in action: Thanks! let's change the URL to that from https://www.yankodesign.com/2026/05/31/a-zipper-patent-sat-i... and we'll put that link and the video in the toptext. This is worth doing because I'm about to re-up the thread a la https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308. Direct link to video. These are some freaking cool zippers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWig98GVIno This reads like it’s been machine generated. (This comment was made when the top link was https://www.yankodesign.com/2026/05/31/a-zipper-patent-sat-i.... We've since changed the link to https://news.mit.edu/2026/three-sided-y-zipper-design-0504) i thought so as well; my eyes were beginning to glaze over. the MIT article talking about it is a much better read. > ... the Y-Zipper, a 3D-printed, three-sided fastener that can snap a floppy, flexible structure into a rigid, load-bearing beam with one smooth pull. Not a mechanical engineer, but I'd figure both the "rigid" and "load-bearing" aspects will be far poorer than conventional beams of the same size and weight. This might be one of those cases where it solves for problem spaces that aren't being considered yet. What I mean by that is in the case of soft robotics, it was developments in manufacturing techniques for the inflated leading edge of kitesurfing kites, that unlocked the capabilities to make soft robots more feasible. Depends on the material that is being used and application. I could see this being highly useful for tents and similar fabric structures. I probably would not build a satellite solar panel structure/frame with them (atomic oxygen is a nasty critter) but for some lightweight terrestrial applications I can see much potential. Interesting, which material? For example, if you used PLA you'd get a stiffer, more mechanically-rigid structure in the zipped-up state. If you used TPU, you'd get a more flexible and elastic structure. I'd want PLA for tent seams and TPU for the door zipper. Is PLA stiffer somehow in this state than it would be as a conventional beam? I don't want door zippers, I want a door! It looks like this could be made from any metal, where the small segments are connected together like links of a chain.