Large impact of small vertex cuts on the mechanics of origami bellows

For origami structures, perforating or cutting slits along creases is an effective method to define fold lines and alleviate stress concentrations at vertices. In this letter we show numerically experimentally that for non-rigid-foldable bellows (e.g. Miura-ori, Kresling patterns) the introduction of small cut-outs vertices results in up order magnitude reduction bellows’ stiffness under axial compression. Further, impact nonlinear response, e.g. position a force limit point presence bistable configurations. As are not rigid foldable, compression will necessarily result facet deformations; found provide unexpectedly large alleviation, resulting disproportionate changes mechanical properties bellows. accurately model mechanics bellows, such manufacturing details must therefore be captured accurately. Lastly, introducing vertex can offered as novel approach tailoring non-rigid foldable structures.