As 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, picks up steam in industrial manufacturing and spurs the public imagination, scientists say the next frontier is 4-D printing: materials that fabricate themselves.

3-D printing is now an established, popular manufacturing technique used to create rapid prototypes and production components with reduced lead times and costs. 3-D printing can be performed by desktop printers operating in the plastic medium or by larger industrial-strength devices that can make steel and stainless steel components.

Although 3-D printing has been around for years and still has an exciting and dynamic future, it remains relatively misunderstood by the general public, which often overestimates its current capabilities. 3-D printing is already making an impact in various industrial markets, in the production of automobiles, aerospace vehicles, and other sectors. While it can work in many applications, 3-D printing is not yet robust enough for large-scale manufacturing or meeting the majority of end-user needs.

But scientists are already looking into 4-D printing.

Scientist, architect, and designer Skylar Tibbits has been working for years on cross-disciplinary methods of introducing "self-assembling" materials to create products that can use various energy sources to build themselves. His mission is to "embed smartness" in materials so they can form structures and components without relying on outside manufacturing processes.

At a recent TED conference in Los Angeles, Tibbits showcased some of the work from MIT's Self-Assembly Lab. Tibbits and his team, supported by software from Autodesk and a specialized 3-D printer supplied by Stratasys, have developed a layered material that is composed of one part standard plastic and one part 3-D printed water-absorbent material. The water-absorbent material uses water as an energy source to activate its motion. Once the material begins absorbing water, it changes shape, bending the plastic attached to it and creating a new structure.

Read the full article online at the Industry Market Trends website.