Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have
successfully added a fourth dimension to their printing technology, opening up
exciting possibilities for the creation and use of adaptive, composite
materials in manufacturing, packaging and biomedical applications.
A team led by H. Jerry Qi, associate professor of mechanical
engineering at CU-Boulder, and his collaborator Martin L. Dunn of the Singapore
University of Technology and Design has developed and tested a method for 4D
printing. The researchers incorporated
“shape memory” polymer fibers into the composite materials used in traditional
3D printing, which results in the production of an object fixed in one shape
that can later be changed to take on a new shape.