With the development of technology, 3D printing makes it easy for people to make imaginary objects. For example, you can use a 3D printer to "play" a model of an airplane. But have you heard of 4D printing? Compared with 3D, in addition to the three-dimensional three-dimensional structure of "length, width and height", this more advanced technology also adds a so-called "timeline". Once it enters real life, many scenes only in science fiction movies will appear in front of you.
If the chair can deform itself
Skyler Tibbitz is the founder of the MIT Automation Laboratory. In February this year, he announced the 4D printing technology they developed at the TED conference in Boracay, California. As soon as the news came out, the entire industry was boiling, and even stocks with related high-tech materials skyrocketed.
What is 4D printing? It sounds like it is just one more number than 3D printing, but in fact it is a completely different concept. "3D printing needs to be modeled, scanned, and then copied with the corresponding materials in accordance with the previous plan." Tibitz said, "4D printing is to directly input the desired traits into the material, and the object will appear" automatically " Without any complicated electromechanical equipment. "
This sounds very mysterious, in fact it does the same. People who are not majors in physics, materials science, and computer science will be confused, but what if they want to explain it in another way? Engineering software developer Autodesk has been studying 4D printing technology. Their chief research scientist Carlo Oguin made an analogy: "Imagine you bought a chair from IKEA. It is placed in the room, and then it is automatically assembled, which is 4D printing. "
Inspired by biological self-replication
MIT's automated laboratories have always been interested in biological self-replication, even more so than Tibbitz. When he participated in the TED conference in 2011, he talked about his expectations for the future manufacturing industry. "I believe that machines and buildings will soon be able to assemble, replicate, and repair themselves, because this is the inherent ability of natural systems."
"In the current manufacturing industry, we can build a skyscraper with 500,000 or even millions of parts in two and a half years. This is a very complex design, using the most advanced steel, concrete and glass. We It ’s also possible to build exciting spacecraft in five years. They have 2.5 million components. â€These are remarkable achievements, but how do they compare to natural systems? "We have 2 million types of proteins that can fold in 10,000 nanoseconds (a unit of time, or one billionth of a second). And in about 1 hour, 3 billion base pairs Will do DNA replication. "
After such a comparison, Tibbitz said that human capabilities are rather small, "but if we can learn the laws of natural systems, then the way we construct things will become extremely efficient."
Decoding and material selection are key
Today, Tibitz and his laboratory really brought 4D printing concepts and display works, and demonstrated this technology at this year's TED conference. In the video, he "printed" a "rope". After that, the "rope" twisted itself into a cube. This is just one of many complicated steps. If there are 100,000 "ropes", they will become more complicated.
According to the explanation of the technology blog "Geek", the key to 4D printing is not what can be generated in the end, but "deformation" in the process. "The fourth dimension in 4D printing is 'self-assembling'," the article wrote, "but in the final analysis it is still 'time', because the assembly process occurs after printing. The object is printed out and then comes into contact with some medium, It produces a preset reaction. In Tibbitz's experiment, water is the medium of deformation. "
Of course, not all materials can complete "self-assembly" after contact with water, decoding and material selection are the key. Tibbitz decodes the content he wants to produce, which is a reverse work similar to parsing human DNA sequences. Then, he chose ordinary plastic and an active substance (protein), and implanted the decoded sequence into it. Then a miracle appeared, and these "wisdom" substances would deform as expected. "They can reverse 120 degrees and minus 120 degrees until they reach the most precise position."
Will the sewers grow on their own in the future?
The emergence of 4D technology has excited the industry, and the wonder of this type of art has made designers and architects all over the world crazy. Think about it, you only need to decode a skyscraper in front of the computer, and then input it into a specific material, it can automatically "grow" the roof, load-bearing walls and elevator ...
"Know that printing is not a new concept," Tibitz said, "but it's different when it comes to future changes. We can generate a lot of architectures at will and use the bending and twisting of materials to change lives There are many aspects. If the groundwater pipe can self-expand to respond to different needs and flows, it can save the step of digging the street. "
In addition, this technology may also be applied to furniture, bicycles, automobiles and even medical fields. However, due to the very complicated decoding steps, the current 4D printing technology can only "print" strips that can be automatically deformed. The next research goal of Tibitz and his colleagues was to "print" flakes, and then more complex structures. Although not perfect enough, Tibbitz has obviously touched the "door handle" that will change the future world.
Special artwork of Tibbitz
Between the 55th and 66th floors of MIT, there is a special piece of art. It was carefully designed by Tibbitz and his colleagues and students, and was used as a gift for the school ’s 150th anniversary and art, science and technology festivals. Its name is "VoltDom", which is a symbol of the installation art of the future design.
This is an artwork composed of glass and concrete, but the material used is not ordinary glass and concrete. They are the masterpieces of Tibitz using new materials. In the future, he hopes to use 4D printing technology to complete this complex, hundreds of arches. Nowadays, it is embedded in the corridor, showing different shapes according to the light changes during the day. The reason for this is that the arches inside the GoldDom are all different, and the thickness of the material is also inconsistent. The light cannot penetrate through it, and can only pass through various reflections and refractions.
Tibbitz hopes to use VoltaDom to expand the modern architectural concept of "surface panel" (panel), and to embody this feeling by strengthening the depth of the double curved arch top surface. This is a work that he and his team assembled together. If 4D printing can continue to develop, he can directly "print" it.
Tibbitz and his laboratory
The 4D printing technology brought by Tibbitz is not yet mature, but it is rapidly making waves all over the world. The stock prices of related memory metals and software companies soared, and there was a tendency for Luoyang Paper to be expensive for a while. But speculation is not their goal, as his laboratory SJET LLC wrote on the official website, "Our exploration of technology is endless."
As a senior student graduated from the University of Philadelphia, Tibbitz came to MIT with a five-year bachelor's degree in architecture and a minor experimental computer degree, where he continued his studies and obtained a master's degree in computer science. In 2007, he established SJET LLC at MIT. At first, they just wanted to build a platform for design and computer experiments. But after years of development, the laboratory has now spanned many fields such as architecture, design, manufacturing, electronic science, and robotics. As a leading figure, Tibitz has also become a celebrity in the design, construction and automatic assembly system world.
In the past few years, he received TED scholarships in 2011 and 2012 and was named one of the "Most Revolutionary People" by Seed Magazine. He has lectured at the American Museum of Modern Art, participated in the Guggenheim Museum and Beijing Biennale, and lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Pratt College, Harvard Graduate School, etc. as a guest scholar.
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