Garland and Chain units
Here you find several units you may use to form garlands and chains.
The garlands are just for decoration and not very strong.
The chain units are stronger: you may even lift some weight with them.
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Chains
Chain unit 1 is just for fast folding and not very strong, although stronger
than the garland units. You may use normal Origami paper for them and also
use rectangles (A4 computer printer paper). On the Novelty Competition at
Nottingham 1998 we made a chain of just over 2 meter in 15 minutes from thick
(magazine cover) 10 x 10 cm paper.
Chain unit 2 is stronger. But folded from a square it is very short. When
folded from A4 computer printer paper you may lift about 1.4 kg at maximum.
Chain unit 3 is even stronger. Folded from normal Origami paper (15 x 15 cm)
you may also lift about 1.4 kg.
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Strength
The problem with the strength is in the connections. The (Origami) paper
itself can lift about 14 kg, when folded in 8 (chain unit 1, diagram 3). So
the connection reduces the weight to about 10% of the paper strength now.
I have found a connection that is still stronger, but not yet diagrammed.
Made with Origami paper it can lift several kilograms. And made with the A4
paper I couldn't rip it.
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