4D Printing: Wait a Second, Did You Say 4D Printing?

By Fouad Sabry

What Is 4D Printing

3D printing, a type of additive manufacturing, is regarded as one of the most disruptive inventions in modern manufacturing. It has fundamentally altered the way components and equipments are made, as well as their design and development, in the industry. 3D printing enables manufacturers and researchers to create sophisticated shapes and structures that were previously thought to be impossible to create using traditional production methods. Over the previous three decades, 3D printing technology has seen constant breakthroughs and has changed dramatically. Despite its ability to generate sophisticated, bio-inspired, multi-material designs, 3D printing is not yet suitable for mass production.

The addition of a fourth dimension to 3D printing technology is known as "4D Printing." With this new dimension, 3D printed things can change shape independently of environmental stimuli such as light, heat, electricity, magnetic field, and so on. Printed items alter shape dynamically dependent on the needs and demands of the circumstance by incorporating the dimension of time, with no electromechanical or moving parts. The ability of 3D printed things to change shape over time in reaction to specific stimuli is based on the material's ability to transform over time in response to specific stimuli, and it does not require human interaction to facilitate the process.

The growing demand for flexible products in a variety of applications, such as self-folding packaging and adaptable wind turbines, has spurred the rise of 4D printing.

How You Will Benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: 4D Printing
Chapter 2: Four-Dimensional Product
Chapter 3: Responsive Architecture
Chapter 4: Responsive Computer-Aided Design
Chapter 5: 3D Printing
Chapter 6: 3D Modeling
Chapter 7: 3D Scanning
Chapter 8: 3D Printing Marketplace
Chapter 9: 3D Bioprinting
Chapter 10: 3D Food Printing
Chapter 11: 3D Manufacturing Format
Chapter 12: 3D Printing Speed
Chapter 13: 3D Systems

(II) Answering the public top questions about 4D printing.
(III) Real world examples for the usage of 4D printing in many fields.
(IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technology in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of 4D printing' technologies.

Who This Book Is For

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of 4D printing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Nov 11, 2021
• ISBN: 6610000317271

Book preview

4D Printing

Other Books by The Author

1 – Smart Machines

2 – Brain Computer Interface

3 – Swarm Intelligence

4 – Autonomous Vehicles

5 – Autonomous Drones

6 – Autonomous Robotics

7 – Autonomous Weapons

8 – Agricultural Robotics

9 – Closed Ecological Systems

10 – Cultured Meat

11 – Vertical Farming

12 – Plasma Propulsion

13 – Pulse Detonation Engine

14 – Arcology

15 – 4D Printing

Series by The Author

Emerging Technologies in Information Technology

1 – Smart Machines

Emerging Technologies in Neuroscience

1 – Brain Computer Interface

Emerging Technologies in Robotics

1 – Swarm Intelligence

Emerging Technologies in Autonomous Things

1 – Autonomous Vehicles

2 – Autonomous Drones

3 – Autonomous Robotics

4 – Autonomous Weapons

Emerging Technologies in Agriculture

1 – Agricultural Robotics

2 – Closed Ecological Systems

3 – Cultured Meat

4 – Vertical Farming

Emerging Technologies in Space

1 – Plasma Propulsion

2 – Pulse Detonation Engine

Emerging Technologies in Construction

1 – Arcology

2 – 4D Printing

One Billion Knowledgeable

4D Printing

Wait a Second, Did You Say 4D Printing?

Fouad Sabry

Copyright

4D Printing Copyright © 2021 by Fouad Sabry. All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Cover designed by Fouad Sabry.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Bonus

You can send an email to [e-mail] with the subject line 4D Printing: Wait a Second, Did You Say 4D Printing?, and you will receive an email which contains the first few chapters of this book.

Fouad Sabry

Visit 1BK website at

www.1BKOfficial.org

Preface

Why did I write this book?

The story of writing this book started on 1989, when I was a student in the Secondary School of Advanced Students.

It is remarkably like the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Schools, which are now available in many advanced countries.

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. This term is typically used to address an education policy or a curriculum choice in schools. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns and immigration policy.

There was a weekly class in the library, where each student is free to choose any book and read for 1 hour. The objective of the class is to encourage the students to read subjects other than the educational curriculum.

In the library, while I was looking at the books on the shelves, I noticed huge books, total of 5,000 pages in 5 parts. The books name is The Encyclopedia of Technology, which describes everything around us, from absolute zero to semiconductors, almost every technology, at that time, was explained with colorful illustrations and simple words. I started to read the encyclopedia, and of course, I was not able to finish it in the 1-hour weekly class.

So, I convinced my father to buy the encyclopedia. My father bought all the technology tools for me in the beginning of my life, the first computer and the first technology encyclopedia, and both have a great impact on myself and my career.

I have finished the entire encyclopedia in the same summer vacation of this year, and then I started to see how the universe works and to how to apply that knowledge to everyday problems.

My passion to the technology started mor than 30 years ago and still the journey goes on.

This book is part of The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies which is my attempt to give the readers the same amazing experience I had when I was in high school, but instead of 20th century technologies, I am more interested in the 21st century emerging technologies, applications, and industry solutions.

The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies will consist of 365 books, each book will be focused on one single emerging technology. You can read the list of emerging technologies and their categorization by industry in the part of Coming Soon, at the end of the book.

365 books to give the readers the chance to increase their knowledge on one single emerging technology every day within the course of one year period.

Introduction

How did I write this book?

In every book of The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies, I am trying to get instant, raw search insights, direct from the minds of the people, trying to answer their questions about the emerging technology.

There are 3 billion Google searches every day, and 20% of those have never been seen before. They are like a direct line to the people thoughts.

Sometimes that’s ‘How do I remove paper jam’. Other times, it is the wrenching fears and secret hankerings they would only ever dare share with Google.

In my pursuit to discover an untapped goldmine of content ideas about 4D Printing, I use many tools to listen into autocomplete data from search engines like Google, then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question, the people are asking around the keyword 4D Printing.

It is a goldmine of people insight, I can use to create fresh, ultra-useful content, products and services. The kind people, like you, really want.

People searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche. Therefore, this book is a live product, and constantly updated by more and more answers for new questions about 4D Printing, asked by people, just like you and me, wondering about this new emerging technology and would like to know more about it.

The approach for writing this book is to get a deeper level of understanding of how people search around 4D Printing, revealing questions and queries which I would not necessarily think off the top of my head, and answering these questions in super easy and digestible words, and to navigate the book around in a straightforward way.

So, when it comes to writing this book, I have ensured that it is as optimized and targeted as possible. This book purpose is helping the people to further understand and grow their knowledge about 4D Printing. I am trying to answer people’s questions as closely as possible and showing a lot more.

It is a fantastic, and beautiful way to explore questions and problems that the peoples have and answer them directly, and add insight, validation, and creativity to the content of the book – even pitches and proposals. The book uncovers rich, less crowded, and sometimes surprising areas of research demand I would not otherwise reach. There is no doubt that, it is expected to increase the knowledge of the potential readers’ minds, after reading the book using this approach.

I have applied a unique approach to make the content of this book always fresh. This approach depends on listening to the people minds, by using the search listening tools. This approach helped me to:

Meet the readers exactly where they are, so I can create relevant content that strikes a chord and drives more understanding to the topic.

Keep my finger firmly on the pulse, so I can get updates when people talk about this emerging technology in new ways, and monitor trends over time.

Uncover hidden treasures of questions need answers about the emerging technology to discover unexpected insights and hidden niches that boost the relevancy of the content and give it a winning edge.

Stop wasting time on gutfeel and guesswork about the content wanted by the readers and fill the book content with what the people need and say goodbye to the endless content ideas based on speculations.

Make solid decisions, and take fewer risks, to get front row seats to what people want to read and want to know — in real time — and use search data to make bold decisions, about which topics to include and which topics to exclude.

Streamline my content production to identify content ideas without manually having to sift through individual opinions to save days and even weeks of time.

It is wonderful to help the people to increase their knowledge in a straightforward way by just answering their questions.

I think the approach of writing of this book is unique as It collates, and tracks the important questions being asked by the readers on search engines.

Acknowledgments

Writing a book is harder than I thought and more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. None of this would have been possible without the work completed by prestigious researchers, and I would like to acknowledge their efforts to increase the knowledge of the public about this emerging technology.

Dedication

To the enlightened, the ones who see things differently, and want the world to be better -- they are not fond of the status quo or the existing state. You can disagree with them too much, and you can argue with them even more, but you cannot ignore them, and you cannot underestimate them, because they always change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones or amateur, others see genius and innovators, because the ones who are enlightened enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do, and lead the people to the enlightenment.

Epigraph

Definition: 4-dimensional printing uses the same techniques of 3D printing through computer-programmed deposition of material in successive layers to create a three-dimensional object.

Importance: The most obvious advantage of 4D printing is that through computational folding, objects larger than printers can be printed as only one part. Since the 4D printed objects can change shape, can shrink and unfold, objects that are too large to fit a printer can be compressed for 3D printing into their secondary form.

Materials: 4D printing technology makes use of materials such as single shape memory polymers, liquid crystal elastomers, composite hydrogel, composites, multi-material, and other multifunctional material because of their thermomechanical properties and other material properties.

Founder: The forefather of this emerging technology is computer scientist Skylar Tibbits, founder and co-director of the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The origins of 4D printing are in the introduction of a time factor to 3D printing.

Science: 4D printing essentially refers to the ability of 3D printed objects to change its shape over time caused by either heat or water while the reversibility aspect of it allows it to revert to its original shape.

Table of Contents

4D Printing

Other Books by The Author

Series by The Author

4D Printing

Copyright

Bonus

Preface

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Epigraph

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: 4D Printing

Chapter 2: Four Dimensional Product

Chapter 3: Responsive architecture

Chapter 4: Responsive Computer Aided Design

Chapter 5: 3D printing

Chapter 6: 3D modeling

Chapter 7: 3D scanning

Chapter 8: 3D printing marketplace

Chapter 9: 3D bioprinting

Chapter 10: 3D food printing

Chapter 11: 3D Manufacturing Format

Chapter 12: 3D printing speed

Chapter 13: 3D Systems

Epilogue

About the Author

Coming Soon

Appendices: Emerging Technologies in Each Industry

Chapter 1: 4D Printing

4 dimensional printing (4D printing; also known as 4D bioprinting, active origami, or shape-morphing systems) employs the same processes as 3D printing to build a three-dimensional object through computer-programmed deposition of material in consecutive layers. In 4D printing, however, the final 3D shape can morph into different shapes in response to external stimuli, with the 4th dimension being the time-dependent shape change after printing. It is thus a type of programmable matter in which, after manufacturing, the printed product reacts with environmental conditions (humidity, temperature, voltage, etc.) and changes shape accordingly.

Printing techniques

Stereolithography is a 3D printing process that uses photopolymerization to link layers of substrate to form a polymeric network. In contrast to fused-deposition modeling, in which the extruded material hardens instantly to form layers, 4D printing is primarily based on stereolithography, in which ultraviolet light is typically employed to cure the stacked materials after the printing process is complete. Anisotropy is essential in engineering the direction and amount of transformations under a specific situation by organizing the micromaterials in such a manner that the end print has embedded directionality.

Fiber architecture

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Tibbits et al. printed a composite polymer that reacts when submerged underwater.

The majority of 4D printing technologies rely on a network of fibers with varying sizes and material qualities. 4D-printed components can be designed on both the macro and micro scales. Complex molecular/fiber simulations that approximate the aggregated material properties of all the materials employed in the sample are used to achieve micro scale design. The deformation shape upon stimulus activation is directly related to the size, shape, modulus, and connecting pattern of these material building pieces.

Hydro-reactive polymers/hydro gels

Skylar Tibbits, the head of MIT's Self-Assembly Lab, collaborated with the Stratasys Materials Group to create a composite polymer made up of extremely hydrophilic parts and non-active, highly stiff materials. The distinct qualities of these two different materials allowed for up to 150 percent swelling of some regions of the printed chain in water, while the stiff elements established structural and angle limitations for the altered chain. They created a chain that morphed into a wire frame cube when immersed in water and another chain that spelled MIT when submerged in water.

Cellulose composites

Thiele et al. investigated the possibility of a cellulose-based material that could be humidity responsive. They created a bilayer film by employing cellulose steraroyl esters with varying degrees of substitution on either side. One ester was very hydrophilic with a substitution degree of 0.3, while the other was highly hydrophobic with a substitution degree of 3. The hydrophobic side constricted and the hydrophilic side expanded when the sample was cooled from 50 °C to 22 °C and the relative humidity rose from 5.9 percent to 35 percent, causing the sample to roll up tightly. Reversing the temperature and humidity adjustments led the sample to unroll again, proving that the process is reversible.

A. Sydney Gladman et al. were able to emulate plant nastic activity by understanding anisotropic swelling and mapping the alignment of printed fibrils. Branches, stems, bracts, and flowers vary the internal turgor of their cell walls and tissue composition in response to external stimuli such as humidity, light, and touch. Using this as a model, the researchers created a composite hydrogel architecture with local anisotropic swelling behavior that resembles the structure of a conventional cell wall. During the printing process, cellulose fibrils join to form microfibrils with a high aspect ratio (100) and an elastic modulus on the order of 100 GPa. For structure, these microfibrils are embedded in a soft acrylamide matrix.

An aqueous solution of N,N-dimethylacrylamide, nanoclay, glucose oxidase, glucose, and nanofibrillated cellulose was utilized to print this hydrogel composite's viscoelastic ink. When the material is cured with ultraviolet radiation, the nanoclay acts as a rheological aid, improving liquid flow, while the glucose inhibits oxygen inhibition. Using this ink, the researchers developed a theoretical model for a print route that specifies the orientation of cellulose fibrils, in which the bottom layer of the print is parallel to the x-axis and the top layer of the print is rotated anticlockwise by an angle. The sample's curvature is determined by elastic moduli, swelling ratios, and layer thickness and bilayer thickness ratios. As a result, the updated models for mean curvature and Gaussian curvature are, respectively,

and

Gladman et al. discovered that as gets closer to 0°, the curvature approximates the traditional Timoshenko equation and behaves similarly to a bimetallic strip. However, as the angle approaches 90°, the curvature turns into a saddle shape. With this knowledge, the team was able