This image shows the self-folding process of
smart shape-memory materials with slightly different responses to heat.
Using materials that fold at slightly different rates is important to
ensure that the components do not interfere with one another during the
process.
Credit: Credit: Qi Laboratory, Georgia Tech
Using components made from smart shaped memory materials
with slightly different response to heat, researchers have demonstrated
printing technology that allowed creation of complex self-folding structures.
The technology, developed by researchers at the Georgia
Institute of technology and the Singapore University of Design and Technology,
could be used to create 3-D structures that sequentially fold themselves from
components that had been flat rolled into a tube for shipment.
The component could respond to stimuli such as temperature,
moisture or light in a way that is precisely timed to create space structures,
deployable medical devices, robots, toys and other structures.
The researchers used smart shape memory polymers (SMPs) with
the ability to remember one shape and change to another programmed shape when
uniform heat is applied.
The ability of objects to change shape is controlled by a
sequence over time by printing multiple materials with different dynamic
mechanical properties in prescribed patterns throughout the 3-D object. When
those components are heated, each SMP responds at different rate to change its
shape, depending on its own internal clock. By carefully timing these changes,
3-D objects can be programmed to self-assemble.
The research was published on September 8th in
the Journal Scientific Report.
The research creates self-folding structures from 3-D
printed patterns containing varying amounts of different smart shape-memory
polymers. The patterning which is done by a 3-D printer, allows the result flat
components to have varying temporal response to the same stimuli. Earlier
methods required application of different heating at specific location in the
flat surface to stimulate the shape changes.
The team demonstrated the approach with a series of examples
including a mechanism that can be switched from a flat strip into locked
configuration as one end controllable bends and threads itself through the key
hole.
They also demonstrated a flat sheet that can fold itself
into a 3-D box with interlocking flaps. These examples all required the precise
control of the folding sequence of different part of structure to avoid
collision of components during folding.
The research team envisioned a broad range of applications
for their technology. For example, an unmanned air vehicle might change shape
from one designed for a cruise mission to one designed for a dive. Also
possible would be 3-D components designed to fold flat or rolled up into tubes
so they could be easily transported and then later deformed into their intended
3-D configuration for use.
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