4D Printing, Volume 1

2Is There External Creativity to Support 4D Printing?

Matter has neither bag nor skin. Only the cell has a membrane […]. It is by providing itself with an insulating layer, whose role is not to prohibit but to regulate the exchange between the inside and the outside, that a living being can form and grow. (Debray 2020)

Figure 2.1. Spectacular example of a 4D object made with heat sensitive polymers, validation for additive manufacturing according to Ge et al. (2016). For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/demoly/4Dprinting1.zip

2.1. Introduction

As recalled in the introduction, according to Tibbits (2013):

An unprecedented revolution is underway. It is the ability to program biological and physical materials to change shape, change properties […]. The idea behind 4D printing is to do 3D printing with multiple materials, so you can put multiple materials in, and add a new capability: transformation. As soon as they come out, the parts can transform from one shape to another, directly, by themselves. It’s like robotics without wires or motors. (Tibbits 2016)

You print this part, and it can turn into something else. Who hasn’t dreamed of this after seeing the movie “Terminator”? With this visionary speech, Tibbits (2016) thus defines a new objective to 3D printing with, in anticipation, its inclusion in the context of Industry 4.0 (Jardim-Goncalves, Romero ...