London, United Kingdom - With 3D printing already taking the industry by storm, Rob Fletcher takes a look at a new project that could see the introduction of a new process being dubbed as ’4D printing’.
The secret of 3D print is out and some companies are already feeling the benefit of this added, innovative approach to printing. However, while 3D printing may still be a relatively new technology in our industry, it seems this sector could be set for further evolution with the introduction of a new process being referred to as ’4D printing’.The Self-Assembly Lab at US private research university the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 3D print specialist Stratasys and 3D design software company Autodesk have joined forces to establish a new 4D print process.Researchers classify 4D printing as self-reconfiguration of self-transformation; printed elements in a strand, sheet or 3D object that transform into another shape through the use of energy. The ‘smart’ materials that are being developed by the team have properties that allow them to transform from one state into their programmed state through the use of water as an activation energy.
Addressing development
The research project is being headed up by Skylar Tibbits, who is an architecture facility member at MIT. He explained that the university has be investigating the technology for a number of years and is optimistic about what it can achieve.”We’ve been doing this research for about five years now, starting with the fundamental elements such as, building prototypes and demonstrating their capabilities,” Tibbits said. “The lab was set up with the hope of collaborative research with leading companies in various industries.”We’ve been building lots of prototypes that self-assemble or reconfigure themselves. We’ve been able to develop prototypes that change their own shape and properties without human interference, but there has always been an extra step that makes the systems ‘smart’, where you had to embed a mechanism to make them smarter.”4D printing was really started as a collaboration with Stratasys with the aim of streamlining the process of making these smart materials. Ultimately, we wanted to simplify the production, from idea to reality with smarter materials that can be customised with no additional steps.
“4D printing is fundamentally 3D printing with the added capability of materials transforming over time”
I think there are still a few aspects of 3D printing that need to develop such as, faster printing, more structural materials, more responsive smart materials – all of these things are constrained to 3D printing now. 4D printing is trying to address the development of smart, multi-functional, responsive materials.Tibbits explained that MIT opted to use the Stratasys Connex 3D Printer due to is multiple-material capability, which allows one material to act as the geometric program and the other as the activation energy or the potential energy for it to transform from one state into another. By using two materials seamlessly together, it allows for the creation of a new materials or system that can adapt on its own.In terms of what can actually be created through this process, Tibbits said the possibilities are ‘endless’. He cited examples such as sportswear and sports equipment that adapts to the user and how they are performing when their body temperature of environment changes around them.
Just the beginning
Expanding on the possibilities of 4D print Shelly Linor, director of global education for Stratasys, told FESPA that the technology has the potential to be used in a number of innovative ways as it is further developed.
A demonstration of how a Stratasys 3D-printed strand self-folds into a cube after being placed in water
“With the technology being in its infancy it is difficult to say how it can be used, but there is potential to develop this,” Linor said. “For example, in the future 4D printing may be used in warzones or during back-packing excursions. Users may require condensed packaging one day, but the next, a larger bag which includes programmed materials could enable the condensed packaging to respond to external stimulus and automatically expand the bag.
“Although not commercially available, self-assembly is just the beginning of a whole innovative world of manufacturing with minimum energy”
As environmental, economic, human and other constraints continue to fluctuate, we will eventually need dynamic systems that can respond with ease and agility. 4D printing is the first of its kind to offer this exciting capability.
“This truly is a radical shift in our understanding of structures, which have up to this point, remained static and rigid – think aerospace, automotive, building industries – and will soon be dynamic, adaptable and tuneable for on-demand performance.
“With 4D print having attracted plenty of interest already, Linor said Stratasys is now keen to work with other educational establishments to push development further still.
Shelly Linor, director of global education for Stratasys, told FESPA 4D print technology has the potential to be used in a number of innovative ways
“Since 4D printing was established, it has gained great interest not only from the media, but for an increasing number of universities worldwide,” Linor said. “We are even starting to see it affecting industry and in the future, it has the potential to become as commonplace as traditional manufacturing today.
“Our education department is driven by universities worldwide and we continue to share and develop our knowledge, pushing the boundaries to new possibilities using Stratasys technology.”
Rethinking the future
The third company involved in the project is 3D software company Autodesk, which began working with Tibbits three years ago. Carlos Olguin, head of the firm’s Bio/Nano/Programmable Matter group at Autodesk Research, also believes 4D print offer great potential.”Skylar’s work is a fundamental example of the design of human-scale structures that follow biological principles such as self-assembly in a non-biological context,” Olguin said. “In my view, it is not only about being inspired by biology and using a very specific design motive in an engineering context.
“It’s about altogether rethinking the future of manufacturing – from shipping and assembly, to operational use, to disassembly and recycling”
“Anything that can benefit from having sensors and actuators engrained in a printable material could be created using 4D print technology.”Olguin went on to say that Autodesk is committed 4D print and is now keen to push forward with 4D print development.”The Bio/Nano/Programmable Matter group’ mission is to collaborate with world-class researchers in industry and academia to co-envision and co-implement the design paradigms and tools needed to program matter across scales and domains, with 4D printing being one of them,” he said.”To achieve this we created a meta-platform called Project Cyborg. The cross-pollination across projects within Cyborg will help create a robust scale-free body of knowledge, eventually merging seemingly remote industries from manufacturing to biology, helping new design communities thrive and creating new economies along the way.”
This example shows how 4D printing can allow for the material to change from being a straight line to spelling out MIT
4D revolution?
Reflecting on what has been achieved so far, Tibbits, along with research partners at Stratasys and Autodesk, appear to be extremely optimistic about where this technology can go and how it can be used.Tibbits concluded: “Our goals are to create materials that respond to different activation energies and can repeatedly transform state. We would love to put these materials on the market as soon as possible; however, as a research lab, our aim is not to be a company distributing products or machines, rather inventing new technologies. The 4D revolution has only just begun.”
Source: FESPA