4-D printer handles multiple materials

New Orleans, Louisiana – A new 4-D printer technology has been unveiled by scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology and the Singapore University of Technology and Design. It allows more than one material to be printed at the same time.

Speaking at the American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans, the team described their prototype printer. It is designed to make self-assembling structures that can change shape after being exposed to stimuli such as heat or humidity. The presenters suggested it could be useful in aerospace and medicine.

4-D printing is a challenge. It often requires complex, time-consuming post-processing steps to mechanically programme each component. Many commercial printers can only print 4-D structures composed of a single material.

The new machine combines four different printing techniques, including: aerosol, inkjet, direct ink write and fused deposition modelling. The same print can contain multiple rigid, flexible and elastic materials. The list includes shape memory polyurethanes. It can also create electrical wiring, and encase it in a plastic coating.

The team is currently working with US paediatric care company, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The organisations are cooperating on a project to use 4d-print to make prosthetic hands for children born with malformed arms.

‘We are on the cusp of creating a new generation of devices that could vastly expand the practical applications for 3-D and 4-D printing,’ said Georgia Institute’s Jerry Qi. ‘Our prototype printer integrates many features that appear to simplify processes used in traditional 3-D printing.

'We can use a variety of materials to create hard and soft components at the same time. We can incorporate conductive wiring directly into shape-changing structures, siad Qi.

He added that the advance will  'set the stage for the development of a host of 4-D products that could reshape our world.’