Cross-Sectional 4D-Printing
  • View Times: 31
  • |
  • Release Date: 2023-07-19
  • additive manufacturing
  • shape change
  • material programming
  • adaptive structures
  • mechanical metamaterials
  • functional materials
  • carnivorous plants
  • bioinspiration
Video Introduction

This video is adapted from 10.3390/biomimetics8020233

Extrusion-based 4D-printing, which is an emerging field within additive manufacturing, has enabled the technical transfer of bioinspired self-shaping mechanisms by emulating the functional morphology of motile plant structures (e.g., leaves, petals, capsules). However, restricted by the layer-by-layer extrusion process, much of the resulting works are simplified abstractions of the pinecone scale’s bilayer structure. This video presents a new method of 4D-printing by rotating the printed axis of the bilayers, which enables the design and fabrication of self-shaping monomaterial systems in cross sections. This research introduces a computational workflow for programming, simulating, and 4D-printing differentiated cross sections with multilayered mechanical properties. Taking inspiration from the large-flowered butterwort (Pinguicula grandiflora), which shows the formation of depressions on its trap leaves upon contact with prey, researchers investigate the depression formation of bioinspired 4D-printed test structures by varying each depth layer. Cross-sectional 4D-printing expands the design space of bioinspired bilayer mechanisms beyond the XY plane, allows more control in tuning their self-shaping properties, and paves the way toward large-scale 4D-printed structures with high-resolution programmability.

Full Transcript
Video Production Service