Authors:
Rodrigo Zapata Martínez
1
;
Carlos Aguilar
1
;
William Solórzano-Requejo
2
;
1
;
Oscar Contreras-Almengor
3
;
Carlos Polvorinos Fernández
1
;
Jon Molina-Aldareguia
3
and
Andrés Díaz Lantada
1
Affiliations:
1
ETSI Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
;
2
Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Universidad de Piura, Piura, Peru
;
3
IMDEA Materials Institute, Tecnogetafe, Getafe, Spain
Keyword(s):
Additive Manufacturing, 4D Printing, Personalized Biomedical Design, Smart Materials, Structures.
Abstract:
The concept of 4D printing refers to the ability of a 3D printed material or device to change shape in a predefined manner controlled from the design stage. Currently, 4D printing research is performed by employing various additive technologies and materials, whose special design features or functional properties allow for these shape transformations or metamorphoses after printing. This smart shape-morphing behaviour is already providing innovative concepts for biomedical engineering and healthcare technologies, although important advances are still needed towards impactful transfer to society. This study presents different polymeric additive manufacturing technologies: stereolithography, digital light processing and selective laser sintering, that can be employed towards shape-morphing or 4D printed medical devices, in some cases at prototyping level, in others for final production. Through the prototyping of different joints and kinematic chains, configured as potential surgical a
ctuators, the potentials and limitations of these resources are studied and good design practices and future applications for 4D printed biodevices are provided. The applicability of polymeric 4D printing to emulate and predict 4D printability with high-performance alloys is discussed.
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