Stiffening is any process that increases the rigidity and

structural integrity Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...

of objects. Stiffening is used in crafts, art, industry, architecture, sports, aerospace, object construction, bookbinding, etc.

Mechanics

mechanics Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to objects r ...

, "stiffening" beams brings anti-

buckling In structural engineering, buckling is the sudden change in shape (deformation) of a structural component under load, such as the bowing of a column under compression or the wrinkling of a plate under shear. If a structure is subjected to a gr ...

, anti-wrinkling, desired shaping, reinforcement, repair, strength, enhanced function, extended utility, longer beam life, safety, etc. Stiffening of fluid or rigid beams is used in

medical arts Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

bookbinding Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of ''signatures'', sheets of paper folded together into sections that are bound, along one edge, with a thick needle and strong thread. Cheaper, b ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, natural plants and trees, construction industry, bridge building, and more. Mechanical methods for stiffening include tension stiffening, centrifugal stiffening, bracing, superstructure bracing, substructure bracing, straightening, strain stiffening, stress stiffening, damping vibrations, swelling, pressure increasing, drying, cooling, interior reinforcing, exterior reinforcing, wrapping, surface treating, or combinations of these and other methods. Beams under bending loads or compression invite stiffening to stop buckling or collapse while fulfilling desired functions, purposes, and benefits.

Bookbinding

, stiffening is a process whereby paperback books are reinforced for use in libraries, without change to their fundamental binding structure. It is in use at several academic libraries in the United States, including those at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. During the stiffening process, a cloth or

Tyvek Tyvek () is a brand of synthetic flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers. The name "Tyvek" is a registered trademark of the American multinational chemical company DuPont, which discovered and commercialized Tyvek in the late 1950s and early ...

strip is glued down on the inside joints of a paperback to reinforce the attachment of the book's covers. A thin but stiff board is then glued to the inside of both the front and back cover of the book, and the entire book is trimmed slightly on the head, tail, and fore edge, often with an electric guillotine. Stiffening provides an in-house, inexpensive alternative to commercial

library binding Library binding can be divided into the two major categories of "original" and "after market". The original category is as it says: the book was originally bound with the idea that it would be used in a library setting where the book would receive ...

for paperbacks. While it does not involve (re-)sewing a book as in a library binding, stiffening does significantly prolong the usable life of a paperback, and allows paperbacks to stand upright on library shelves. The stiffening process was invented in 1974 by John Dean, who was Head of Preservation at Johns Hopkins at the time.

References

Citations

* *{{cite web, title=Stiffening , url=http://www.library.jhu.edu/departments/preservation/prep/stiffening.html , publisher=The

, accessdate=2007-07-20 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903001213/http://www.library.jhu.edu/departments/preservation/prep/stiffening.html , archivedate=2006-09-03 Mechanics Bookbinding