4D Printing: Revolutionizing material form and control

In a collaboration between MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab and Stratasys education and R&D departments, a new process called 4D printing is being developed.

4D PrintingMIT 2013

BioMolecular
Self-Assembly
TED Global, Edinburgh 2012

Self-Assembly Line
TED Conference, CA 2012

Self-Folding Proteins
MIT 2012

Biased Chains
MIT 2010

Decibot
MIT 2009

The results demonstrate a radical shift in rapid prototyping, where objects change over time to perform programmed functions, based simply on material properties.


4D Printing Project

Revolutionizing Material Form and Control with 4D Printing an Academic Project in Collaboration with Stratasys

In a unique research collaboration between Stratasys’ Education, R&D departments and MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, a new process is being developed, known as 4D Printing.

Led by Skylar Tibbits, Self-Assembly Lab Director and trained Architect, Computer Scientist and Artist, this unique research focuses on developing self-assembly technologies for large-scale structures in our physical environment.

Tibbits’ 4D Printing project is enabled by Stratasys’ Connex multi-material 3D printing technology - with the added capability of embedded transformation from one shape to another, directly off the 3D printer.

How it Works

With Stratasys’ Connex technology,

• a single print, with multi-material features, can transform from any 1D strand into 3D shape, 
• 2D surface into 3D shape or morph from one 3D shape into another. 

Objet Connex multi-material 3D printing technology is an important part of his work – and is being used extensively in this new process.

The Connex multi material technology allows the researchers to program different material properties into each of the various particles of the designed geometry and harnesses the different water-absorbing properties of the materials to activate the self-assembly process.

With water as its activation energy, this technique promises new possibilities for embedding programmability and simple decision making into non-electronic based materials. (Imagine robotics-like behavior without the reliance on complex electro-mechanical devices)

Future Applications

Although not commercially available, self-assembly is just a 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 is truly a radical shift in our understanding of structures, which have up to this point, remained static and rigid (think aerospace, automotive, building industries etc) and will soon be dynamic, adaptable and tunable for on-demand performance.

Watch 4D Printing in Action!
4D Printing: Cube Self-Folding Strand
4D Printing: MIT Self-Folding StrandSkylar Tibbits was recently awarded a TED2012 Senior Fellowship, a TED2011 Fellowship and has been named a Revolutionary Mind in SEED Magazine's 2008 Design Issue.

Additional coverage from TED2013:
MIT’s New Self-Assembly Lab Is Building A Paradigm Shift To 4-D Manufacturing
Stratasys’s Programmable Materials: Just Add Water
Brilliant Robot Scraps Can Form Selves Into Anything
Researchers Unveil World’s First 4-D Printer


ORIGINAL: Stratasys

Writing Messages With Water

ORIGINAL: Tech News Daily

By Julian Taub, 

December 04 2012 05:53 PM ET

Examples of hydroglyphic writing. 

CREDIT: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

Scientists have used nanotechnology to create “selectively wet” materials that can be used to write long-lasting messages with water.

The concept, called "hydroglyphics," was exhibited by scientists at Harvard who recently teamed up with a group of Merrimack, N.H., high school students and faculty to make an educational demo. 

The demo, appropriately entitled "Hydroglyphics," helps people visualize the difference between water repelling and wetting surfaces. The main principle behind hydroglyphics (a combination of the words “hydro” and “hieroglyphics”) is that by changing the properties of a surface, you can make your own special prints using water. All you need is some foam stickers, a modified Tesla coil and a Petri dish.

[VIDEO: Nanotechnology's Big Impact]

Each audience member takes a Petri dish and chooses a favorite sticker, tacking it onto the bottom of the dish. The demo performer then puts each dish under the Tesla coil, and zaps them. A purple spark appears accompanied by a loud noise. Once the sticker is removed, water is added to the dish. The water fills up everywhere except on the area where the sticker had been, creating an “engraving.” The message can last about one month.

Harvard scientist Philseok Kim, the first author on the paper about this demo, stumbled upon the idea for hydroglyphics. While helping one of Merrimack’s teachers, Raymond Sleeper, come up with a new demo, he experimented with equipment in the lab that was being used for other research projects.

“I tested [the demo on] a Petri dish, to see how much contrast between hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity we could make,” Kim, of the Wyss Institute, said. “To our surprise, it nicely generated strikingly good contrast.”

The Petri dishes originally have a plastic structure that repels water (hydrophobic). When treated with the Tesla coil, the air becomes conductive and oxygen combines with the plastic, making the Petri dish surface attracted to water (hydrophilic). However, the area under the sticker was protected from the air, so it still repels water. Water in the dish sticks to the hydrophobic regions, keeping the message area dry. 

The hydroglyphics demo has been a success wherever the researchers have taken it, Kim said. “Purple electric arcs with funny zapping noise, cute and colorful stickers, and mystery messages… all of them are a series of 'wow' moments that just happen over a few minutes. I think this is a truly engaging combination.”

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