4D Printing, Volume 1

1Is 4D Printing Disruptive or Incremental, or a Bit of Both?

The fall of France is not a new theme, but it is a reality on many levels, and the most diverse explanations abound. (Silverzahn 2021)

Richelieu […] said he recognized from experience that, all other things being equal, rebels are always half as strong as the defenders of official power. (Weil 2021)

1.1. Introduction

A certain malaise is developing, despite the prevailing discourse on the decline of France in terms of technological development and scientific relevance. Because of a lack of will, a lack of vision of the future and therefore a lack of risk-taking, 3D printing has not been French. Moreover, as Philippe Silverzahn (2021) points out, “our country and its industry are absent in almost any of the major current technological races, whether in Bio-Tech, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital, or energy”. For all that, the government is not stingy when it comes to launching proposals, rather than catching up, within well-funded projects such as the “Programmes d’investissements d’avenir” (see, e.g. Alcimed (2021)). As a reminder, they were set up by the State to finance innovative and promising investments on the national territory, in order to allow France to increase its growth and employment potential. Thus, for innovation, for this bibliographic source, the national criteria for innovation are as follows:

“Let’s make no mistake about it, even if some projects will be financed at fairly low TRLs, ...