Scientists stunned by huge MIT discovery in 4D Printing
Scientists stunned by huge MIT discovery
AUGUST 27, 2016 BY DAN TAYLOR
Researchers at MIT have just made a discovery that could
totally change how we manufacture stuff in the future.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has done a lot
of important scientific work over the years, and you can add another discovery
to the pile: researchers at MIT have created new 3D printed structures that can
“remember” their shapes, even after they are stretched and bent to oblivion,
which could lead to breakthroughs in solar cells and drug capsules that release
medicine only when a fever is detected.
In cooperation with the Sinapore University of Technology
and Design, the MIT researchers found a way to print tiny features on a micron
scale, and then bent them — causing them to spring back into their original
shape afterwards after being heated to a certain temperatures, according to an
MIT statement.
There are so many potential important applications for
the discovery, including actuators that would turn solar panels toward the sun
automatically and drug capsules that act on their own. It’s something that goes
beyond 3D printing into what researchers would call 4D printing, as the
structures cross into the fourth dimension of time.
Nicholas X. Fang, associate professor of mechanical
engineering at MIT, said in the statement that shape-memory polymers are able
to morph in response to temperature, which allows for the previously mentioned
practical applications.
“We ultimately want to use body temperature as a
trigger,” Fang said. “If we can design these polymers properly, we may be able
to form a drug delivery device that will only release medicine at the sign of a
fever.”
Former MIT-SUTD research fellow Qi “Kevin” Ge, a fellow
researcher on the project, explained how 4D printing is significantly different
from typical 3D printing.
“Our method not only enables 4-D printing at the
micron-scale, but also suggests recipes to print shape-memory polymers that can
be stretched 10 times larger than those printed by commercial 3-D printers,” Ge
said. “This will advance 4-D printing into a wide variety of practical
applications, including biomedical devices, deployable aerospace structures,
and shape-changing photovoltaic solar cells.”
Basically, Fang and other researchers have been looking
into using soft, active materials as tools, including shape-memory polymers.
This has implications for use in biomedical devices, soft robotics, wearable
sensors and artificial muscles, the authors wrote, describing the polymers as
“particularly intriguing,” as they can switch between two states: a harder
state at lower temperatures and a softer state at higher temperatures.
“The reality is that, if you’re able to make it to much
smaller dimensions, these materials can actually respond very quickly, within
seconds,” Fang said. “For example, a flower can release pollen in milliseconds.
It can only do that because its actuation mechanisms are at the micron scale.”
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