ShrinkCells

ShrinkCells: Localized and Sequential Shape-Changing Actuation of 3D-Printed Objects via Selective Heating

ShrinkCells are shape-changing actuators made from 3D printed thermoplastic polymers that use localized heat generated by conductive PLA to selectively trigger the shrinking of a Shape Memory Polymer. Unlike existing methods that apply global heat, ShrinkCells enable independent, simultaneous, or sequential control of multiple parts of an object using a single power supply. This allows 3D printed rigid structures to actuate in sequence and avoid self-collisions during unfolding. The work advances 4D fabrication through systematic study of selective heating, design and evaluation of ShrinkCells, and demonstration of their applications.

Reference

@inproceedings{10.1145/3526113.3545670,
  author = {Moon, Kongpyung (Justin) and Lee, Haeun and Kim, Jeeeun and Bianchi, Andrea},
  title = {ShrinkCells: Localized and Sequential Shape-Changing Actuation of 3D-Printed Objects via Selective Heating},
  year = {2022},
  isbn = {9781450393201},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  address = {New York, NY, USA},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3526113.3545670},
  doi = {10.1145/3526113.3545670},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology},
  articleno = {86},
  numpages = {12},
  keywords = {Shape-changing, Sequential actuation, Selective Heating, Multi-material printing, 4D printing},
  location = {Bend, OR, USA},
  series = {UIST '22}
}

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