4DMesh: 4D Printing Morphing Non-Developable Mesh Surfaces
2017-2018
4DMesh is a method of combining shrinking and bending thermoplastic actuators with customized geometric algorithms to 4D print and morph centimeter- to meter-sized functional non-developable surfaces. With our tools, users can input CAD models of target surfaces and produce respective printable files. The flat sheet printed can morph into target surfaces when triggered by heat.
By Guanyun Wang, Humphrey Yang, Zeyu Yan, Nurcan Gecer Ulu, Ye Tao, Jianzhe Gu, Levent Burak Kara, Lining Yao
This system saves shipping and packaging costs, in addition to enabling customizability for the design of relatively large non-developable structures. We designed a few functional artifacts to leverage the advantage of non-developable surfaces for their unique functionalities in aesthetics, mechanical strength, geometric ergonomics and other functionalities.
Applications emphasizing the flat-packing, morphing, and customizability of non-developable and organic shapes in the context of home furniture, bespoke wearables, and customizable composite molds.
Two end-to-end pipelines to flatten a given non-developable geometry into printable G-code. One pipeline is based on bending actuators adapted to the Chebyshev Net algorithm; the other is based on shrinking actuators adapted to a conformal mapping algorithm.
