Three-dimensional (3D) printers (computer-controlled cutters, millers, etc.) enable designers, scientists, and engineers to rapidly prototype, test, and fabricate structures like never before. Despite advances in 3D printers, directly printing 3D structures with curved surfaces or interlocking pieces remains a challenge (in terms of time and material). Strategies where simple two-dimensional (2D) structures are assembled into or otherwise transformed into desired 3D structures present practical advantages. We demonstrate the fabrication of 3D structures in a common thermoplastic, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), through the “programed” shape change of quasi-2D structures. We control the 2D to 3D shape transition in these structures by including flexures sites and variable dimension and mass in their design that, when exposed to physical (e.g., temperature) and/or chemical (e.g., solvent vapor) stimuli, predictably transform the 2D design into the desired 3D shape. We illustrate this approach by fabricating and stacking 2D structures that are then transformed (via thermal processing) into complex shapes that would be difficult or impossible to fabricate directly using 3D printing. We demonstrate a ~75% decrease in time and ~50% decrease in required material (when compared to similar structures printed directly) following our approach. Our work illustrates the applicability of thermoplastics to “4D” printing—the thermoplastic can self-assemble into the intended shape over time through chemical and physical processes—and may be applied to the fabrication of 3D heterogeneous structures comprised of multiple materials starting from 2D building blocks.

Programmed shape change of 2D thermoplastic structures into 3D components

249th National Meeting (2015)

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