Forget 3D printing – Australian team has gone 4D!

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

It seems like technology becomes obsolete in the blink of an eye, and apparently, the same holds true for additive manufacturing methods as well: no sooner do scientists use 3D printing to make functioning organs and full-scale rocket engine parts, 4D printing comes along.

Hailing their innovation as “next revolution in additive manufacturing,” researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) at the University of Wollongong claim to have started developing 3D printed materials that can transform into new structures after being produced by exposing them to external stimuli such as heat or water.

The fourth-dimension in 4D printing is time, or more specifically, shape-shifting, they explained. Just like in 3D printing, a structure is created one layer at a time into the desired shape. However, these new materials have the ability to alter their shape from one type of object into another.

No assembly required: Just add water

ACES Professor Marc in het Panhuis and his colleagues, who published their findings earlier this month in the journal Macromolecular Rapid Communications, believe that their work could lead to advances in a number of fields, including robotics, medicine, construction, and automation.

In their research, they 4D printed hydrogels to create a valve, which can actuate in response to the temperatures of the surrounding water. Those printed hydrogels were created out of a network of alginate and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) that interpenetrated, they explained in their study.

“The cool thing about it is, is it’s a working functioning device that you just pick up from the printer. There’s no other assembly required,” the professor explained in a statement. Actuators in the 3D-printed valve are activated by water, meaning that it is “autonomous” and that there is “no input necessary other than water; it closes itself when it detects hot water.”

Marc in het Panhuis and his colleagues, Ph. D. candidate Shannon Bakarich, Dr. Robert Gorkin III and Professor Geoffrey M. Spinks, said that they are the first group to combine the printing of a 4D device with four different cartridges simultaneously, while also using tough gels along with the incorporated actuating materials.

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