4D-Printing System for Elastic Magnetic Actuators

We propose a 4D-printing process for soft actuators. 4D-printing system can print out not only a 3-dimensional object but also deformations in the printed structure simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a new 4D-printing system that utilizes soft resin dispersed with magnetic particles. The printed structure could be actuated by an applied magnetic field. The key in this system is magnetic anisotropy located at each portion of a structure. We show 2 demonstrations of printed actuators, and also a computational method to design the deformations of printed structures. This 4D-printing could be a powerful tool to fabricate micro soft actuators in the MEMS field.