# Keeping it Together: Interleaved Kirigami Extension Assembly

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a hybrid kirigami approach using overlapped flaps to create self-supporting elastic shells with high load-to-weight ratios, combining features of origami and kirigami for advanced structural design.

## Contribution

The paper presents a novel hybrid kirigami method that forms self-supporting elastic shells through overlapped flaps, enabling complex structures without glue or seams.

## Key findings

- Structures achieve colossal load-to-weight ratios (~10,000).
- The method allows creation of self-supporting, deformable elastic shells.
- Hybrid approach combines advantages of origami and kirigami.

## Abstract

Traditional origami structures can be continuously deformed back to a flat sheet of paper, while traditional kirigami requires glue or seams in order to maintain its rigidity. In the former, non-trivial geometry can be created through overfolding paper while, in the latter, the paper topology is modified. Here we propose a hybrid approach that relies upon overlapped flaps that create in-plane compression resulting in the formation of "virtual" elastic shells. Not only are these structures self-supporting, but they have colossal load-to-weight ratios of order 10000.