Mere ink and light can turn two-dimensional polymers into three-dimensional sculptures in an array of shapes, from snail shells to ropey coils to lotus flowers.
Inspired by origami, the technique is a simple take on shape-changing materials: Using a standard office printer, researchers apply lines and gradients of ink to shrinkable poly-styrene film sheets. They then heat the films with light-emitting diode (LED) or infrared lights. The inked areas absorb light and heat up, while transparent unprinted areas stay cool. The resulting uneven shrinkage causes the films to bend, fold, and curve into 3D structures.
That was never the plan, though. North Carolina State Univ. engineers Michael Dickey and Jan Genzer were attempting to use heat to create wrinkled, buckled surfaces on polymers printed with black ink lines, but found that their polymer films kept folding along the lines instead of buckling. They soon realized that the ability to make self-folding plastics could be just as important.
Now, the researchers are reporting two new developments that move the self-folding polymers forward in different ways. One uses colored ink to control the sequence of the folds.
“The ability to control the sequence enables us to make more complex shapes,” Dickey...
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