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The sky is the limit — STILFOLD teams up with Kookiejar to develop vertiport networks
The mobility sector is undergoing huge transformations on all fronts. Sea, land, and air travel alike are seeing technological advancements, social trends, and environmental concerns being raised, changing the way we commute, deliver goods, and travel. The STILFOLD team pride ourselves on collaborating with forward-thinking companies like Swedish space company ISAAC, software platform ADAXIS, traceability company ChainTraced, and car brand Polestar to accelerate the green transformation in the mobility sector. Today we’re happy to announce our latest collaboration with Swedish mobility company Kookiejar.
Kookiejar is creating scalable vertiport (pick-up and drop-off points for vertical take-off and landing vehicles) networks, that will enable goods and people to be moved sustainably and efficiently in and around cities using drones. These pick-up and drop-off points will be built by folding steel plates using STILFOLD’s origami-inspired manufacturing technology. The tech, dubbed “industrial origami”, involves the use of robotic arms to fold flat sheet metal over curves to form strong and sustainable new structures, using minimal component parts.
Through this collaboration, Kookiejar and STILFOLD aims to create a scalable and environmentally friendly production solution for vertiports. Max Hoffman, Head of Strategic Projects at Kookiejar, elaborates:
— Vertiport are a vital component in automating and facilitating drone deliveries and air taxi services on a large scale while ensuring safety and functionality. Together with STILFOLD, we can find even more efficient ways to achieve our goals, build our vertiports, whilst streamlining our production processes and reducing our environmental impact, says Max Hoffman, Head of Strategic Projects at Kookiejar
Drone travel has a critical role to play in the future of deliveries; the number of drone delivery units in operation is expected to grow by 84% in the U.S. by 2024, a country which already is running drone deliveries in major cities.In the future, Kookiejar’s vertiports are also planned to allow EVTOL and VTOL taxis to pick up and drop off people.
The STILFOLD technology is ready to get to work with various vertiport structures.On a daily basisSTILFOLD’s daughter company STILRIDE is kept busy with the production and assembly of the light electric motorcycle STILRIDE 1, which features a STILFOLD-made metal chassis. STILFOLD’s cutting-edge technology was designed to allow designers and engineers all over the worldto fold flat sheets of metal into three-dimensional shapes with minimal resources. This is the very core of the STILFOLD patent — enabling a completely new and resource-effective manufacturing method without the environmental impact.
— This partnership with Kookiejar is further proof that our manufacturing technology provides entirely new opportunities across virtually all types of manufacturing industries. We see a range of exciting benefits for the aviation industry as a whole. Being able to take a leading position in future transportation through drones is another significant advantage we eagerly anticipate, and we can’t wait to start building with the Kookiejar team, says Jonas Nyvang, CEO and co-founder at STILFOLD.
