Experimented a new 4D printing technique that allows the structure of objects to change shape and size after they have been printed
The 3D printers represented the future and in recent years are beginning to arrive in the hands of many people, thanks in part to advances in technology that has made these machines with sensational properties smaller and above all more accessible, economically speaking.
And yet soon, thanks to an experiment developed by a group of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), they could be overtaken by a new form of printing: the printing 4D. Scientists have created a material capable of changing, in the presence of certain external conditions, shape and size. In practice, the objects, after they have been printed, touching them or in contact with heat or other sources, assume different characteristics compared to those of departure. As Kristina Shea, head of the project, says, the structure of objects does not change at random, but in relation to how it was designed.
How 4D printing works
Elements printed in 4D can mainly extend or retract. And that’s not all. Objects made with this innovative printing technique are also capable of bearing weight. Scientists, moreover, have developed software that allows them to understand the pressure required to transform objects. To print the material in 4D, the Swiss team used a standard 3D printer.
Possible uses
This sensational discovery expands the frontier of 3D printing, which is still stuck in the use of “static” materials. In the future, as the scientists themselves suggest, 4D printing will make it possible to create small, but moldable objects. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich plan to apply the technology in the aerospace and medical fields.