By
Mark Ollig
Just
when we were up-to-date about what 3D printing had to offer, we now need to
consider the next dimension of printing.
Get
ready folks, here comes nanoscale-sized, self-programmable materials created
using 4D printing.
Empowering
objects made with special materials using 3D printing techniques and a fourth
dimension of time, shows 4D printed materials will be able to adopt other
shapes after being printed.
Micro
and nanoscale technology inside the material will be able to redesign itself –
by itself – when needed.
Skylar
Tibbits is an architect, designer, and computer scientist at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT).
He
has been studying how to program physical materials to essentially re-shape and
re-build themselves.
A
new 4D self-assembly lab Tibbits is heading will be located at MIT.
In
collaboration with Stratasys, a 3D printer and materials maker with
headquarters in Minnesota and Israel, Tibbits is starting a new 4D printing
project.
He
briefly explained the idea behind 4D printing in a video I watched.
“You
take multi-material 3D printing so you can deposit multiple materials, and you
add a new capability, which is transformation. That right off the bed
[printer’s tray], the parts can transform from one shape to another shape,
directly on their own. And this is like robotics without wires or motors, so
you completely print this part, and it can transform into something else,”
explained Tibbits during a TED conference Feb. 26 in California.
Tibbits
is working with a Boston consulting and engineering firm called Geosyntec on
developing a new prototype for piping materials.
Today,
we bury water pipes of a certain size to handle a given amount of water volume
and pressure flowing through them.
As
time goes by, these water pipes may not be able to handle the increase in
demand capacity for water volume. New, larger water pipes would need to be
buried to replace the older water pipes.
Imagine
a future where existing buried water pipes could be independently adaptive;
changing their size and shape by expanding or contracting to accommodate
changing water volume.
These
futuristic water pipes would also be able to adjust themselves to the water
pressure demands flowing through them.
Water
pumps will not be needed because of the unique undulation properties of the
self-adaptive piping material – the pipe itself will move the water.
Tibbits
calls it Adaptive Infrastructure.
He
breaks down what is needed:
•
Materials and geometry
•
Interactions
•
Energy
Tibbits
suggests using programmable nanoscale materials that can self-assemble, or
build themselves, using any type of passive energy source such as; heat,
magnetism, gravity, pneumatics, shaking, or water.
Inside
the Self Assembly Lab at MIT, Tibbits and others will be working on developing
materials which respond to passive energies for re-shaping themselves.
Tibbits
described self-assembly as a process by which disordered parts build an ordered
structure only through local interaction.
He
proposes automated, programmable methods could resolve inefficiencies in
currently used production methods.
Tibbits
said there is an unprecedented revolution happening.
The
revolution is the ability to create physical and biological materials which can
change their shape and properties, and have the means to figure out the correct
mathematical dimensions for self-assembly.
Tibbits
talked about how a flat sheet of material could “self-fold” as needed in order
to build multi-dimensional structures, such as buildings.
He
showed videos of different materials changing their shape (via programmed
nanoscale instruction sets); in one example a material was activated using
water.
As
I listened to him explain about how these self-assembling materials would be
used in the future, I was reminded of a recent online article I had read.
In
a Live Science piece dated Jan. 23, researchers from North Carolina State
University created a self-healing electrical wire.
The
wire, containing gallium and indium in a fluid alloy core, was shown in a video
powering a light bulb. The wire was then cut in half with a scissors, thus
interrupting the electrical circuit path and disconnecting the power from the
bulb.
In
10 minutes, the wire self-heals, fully re-bonding itself together at the ends
where it was severed, and is shown once again lighting the bulb. The video is
at http://tinyurl.com/bas3g34.
You
can also watch Skylar Tibbits’ TED talk at http://tinyurl.com/d7vk5nk.
If
Tibbits’ self-assembling technology and materials are used in real-world
applications in the future, I believe they will also be capable of
self-healing.
For
example, if part of the finished material’s surface was scratched or punctured,
resulting in an indentation or hole, the nano-scaled instruction-set inside the
material would implement self-healing by absorbing surrounding material to use
for filling in the voids.
This
may remind some of you of the aluminum foil-like material with self-healing and
self-folding properties found at a supposed UFO crash site in Roswell NM, in
1947.
Rest
assured, yours truly is not suggesting we are back-engineering extraterrestrial
technology which arrived here from another planet.
“Star
Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry once said, “Ancient astronauts didn’t build the
pyramids. Human beings built the pyramids, because they’re clever and they work
hard.”
