The objects printed can change shape after coming out of the machine

Mar 1, 2013 08:54 GMT  ·  By

3D Printers have been making the news a lot over the past year, and there have been some truly interesting applications of the concept. Now, though, MIT researchers claim to have gone one step further.

Looking at history, we would be tempted to believe that it should take a bit longer for the next step forward in 3D printing to be taken.

After all, technologies usually need to become established from a marketing standpoint before further developments and investments are made.

Scientists from the MIT feel otherwise, though. They have actually introduced something called 4D printing, of all things.

Long story short, the team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has invented a technology that makes objects whose shape can change after their creation.

Architect and computer scientist Skylar Tibbits showed, at the TED conference in Los Angeles, how the process allows objects to self-assemble.

A thin strand of plastic was dumped in water. After a short time submerged, said plastic strand began to change shape, until it folded into a predetermined shape. Energy from the water absorption was used to “power” the shape shifting.

Before people rightly say plastic is water repellent, we will note that the strand was layered with “smart” material that can absorb H2O, not unlike a sponge.

"Essentially the printing is nothing new," Tibbits told the BBC. "It is about what happens after. […] The rigid material becomes a structure and the other layer is the force that can start bending and twisting it."

Tibbits believes that self-styling materials and objects can be used in bikes, pipes, furniture, even whole buildings.

The MIT team just has to demonstrate the technology working on a larger structure. A somewhat daunting task since 3D printing large things is complicated, as the size of the 3D printer, or rather 4D printer, has a great impact on that.