Researchers 3D Print Shape-Changing Structures That Expand with Heat

IMTS

Share this Article

“Tensegrity” is a term that refers to a structural system of floating rods in compression and cables in continuous tension. It combines the words “tensional integrity,” and has been used as the structural basis for several architectural projects such as the roofs of the Georgia Dome stadium and the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, South Korea, as well as a large pedestrian bridge in Brisbane, Australia. It’s also the system that was used by a research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology to create 3D printed objects that significantly expand when heated.

As a child, I loved playing with those capsules that would turn into spongy animal shapes in hot water, and that’s what I’m reminded of watching the crumpled, flattened 3D printed objects suddenly spring into neat, much larger geometric 3D structures when submerged in hot water. The objects are made up of rods connected by cables, and the rods were 3D printed from a shape memory polymer that unfolds and expands when heated.

“Tensegrity structures are extremely lightweight while also being very strong,” said Glaucio Paulino, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “That’s the reason there’s a heavy amount of interest right now in researching the use of tensegrity structures for outer space exploration. The goal is to find a way to deploy a large object that initially takes up little space.”

Glaucio Paulino (L) and Jerry Qi

The research was documented in a paper entitled “Programmable Deployment of Tensegrity Structures by Stimulus-Responsive Polymers,” which you can access here. To allow the 3D printed struts to be folded flat, they were designed as a hollow shape with a narrow opening running the length of the tube. Each strut has an attachment point at each end to connect to the cables, which are also 3D printed. Once the structures were heated to 65°C, they expanded, and retained their expanded shapes after they were cooled.

“We believe that you could build something like an antenna that initially is compressed and takes up little space, but once it’s heated, say just from the heat of the sun, would fully expand,” said Jerry Qi, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech.

The researchers were able to control the rate of expansion by adjusting at which temperature each strut expands, allowing for structures with struts that expand sequentially instead of all at once.

“For bigger and more complicated structures, if you don’t control the sequence that these struts expand, it tangles and you have a mess,” Paulino said. “By controlling the temperature at which each strut expands, we can have a phased deployment and avoid this entanglement…These active tensegrity objects are very elegant in design and open up a range of possibilities for deployable 3-D structures.”

The technology, according to the researchers, could be used for applications in space exploration, biomedical devices, or for shape-changing soft robots. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Authors of the paper include Ke Liu, Jiangtao Wu, Glaucio H. Paulino, and H. Jerry Qi. Discuss in the Shape-Changing Objects forum at 3DPB.com.

[Source: Georgia Institute of Technology / Images: Rob Felt]

 

Share this Article


Recent News

Will There Be a Desktop Manufacturing Revolution outside of 3D Printing?

Know Your Würth: CEO AJ Strandquist on How Würth Additive Can Change 3D Printing



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

Featured

Pressing Refresh: What CEO Brad Kreger and Velo3D Have Learned About Running a 3D Printing Company

To whatever extent a business is successful thanks to specialization, businesses will nonetheless always be holistic entities. A company isn’t a bunch of compartments that all happen to share the...

Würth Additive Launches Digital Inventory Services Platform Driven by 3D Printing

Last week, at the Additive Manufacturing Users’ Group (AMUG) Conference in Chicago (March 10-14), Würth Additive Group (WAG) launched its new inventory management platform, Digital Inventory Services (DIS). WAG is...

Featured

Hypersonic Heats Up: CEO Joe Laurienti on the Success of Ursa Major’s 3D Printed Engine

“It’s only been about 24 hours now, so I’m still digesting it,” Joe Laurienti said. But even via Zoom, it was easy to notice that the CEO was satisfied. The...

Featured

3D Printing’s Next Generation of Leadership: A Conversation with Additive Minds’ Dr. Gregory Hayes

It’s easy to forget sometimes that social media isn’t reality. So, at the end of 2023, when a burst of doom and gloom started to spread across the Western world’s...