4D Printing - The Future is NowGood Day All Longs, With all the news on PYR we have seen in the last 3-6 months, it is simply amazing the total & absolute disconnect of the sp in regard to news. Oh well, I see it simply as more buying opportunity to continue building my PYR share assets. In the mean time,4D is picking up speed, enjoy the read, Best Wishes to All Longs, Sincerely, Topseeker..... Info. as follows: 4D Printing: ......3D Printing technology has existed for almost 30 years now. Yet, while the Additive Manufacturing industry is still discovering new applications, new materials and new 3D printers, another technology is arising. It is called 4D Printing and is coming straight from the future! ........What is the difference between 3D Printing and 4D Printing? Obviously, 4D Printing has one more D than 3D Printing. What does that mean and why does it bring so much added value to the technology? 3D Printing is about repeating a 2D structure, layer by layer in a print path, from the bottom to the top, layer by layer until a 3D volume is created. 4D Printing is referred to 3D printing transforming over time. Thus, a 4th dimension is added: time. So, the big breakthrough about 4D Printing over 3D Printing is its ability to change shape over time........A 4D printed object is printed just like any 3D printed shape. The difference is that the 4D Printing technology uses programmable and advanced materials which perform a different functionality by adding hot water, light or heat. Thats why a non-living object can change its 3D shape and behavior over time. 4D printing technology uses commercial 3D printers, such as Polyjet 3D printers. The input is a smart material, that can be either a hydrogel or a shape memory polymer. Thanks to their thermomechanical properties and other material properties, smart materials are given the attributes of shape change and are differentiated from the common 3D printing materials. On the other hand, objects printed with 3D Printing technology, are characterized by rigidity. That means that the 3D printed objects are going to keep their 3D shape once printed.......Advantages of 4D Printing The most obvious advantage of 4D printing is that through computational folding, objects larger than printers can be printed as only one part. Since the 4D printed objects can change shape, can shrink and unfold, objects that are too large to fit a printer can be compressed for 3D printing into their secondary form.........Another advantage of the 4D Printing technology is the usage of the possible applied materials. 4D printing has a vast potential to revolutionize the world of materials as we know it today. Imagine 4D printing being applied to a variety of smart materials that today we cannot even imagine! Until now, we have seen experiments of Multimaterial Shape Memory Polymers. Materials like the ones featured in the video below, remember their shape, actively transforminPotential Applications of 4D Printing The videos above demonstrate in a very simple way the 4D Printing process. Though, even if these examples are not characterized by a great complexity, we can foresee great potential in this technology. One potential application of 4D Printing in the real world, would be pipes of a plumbing system that dynamically change their diameter in response to the flow rate and water demand. Pipes that could possibly heal themselves automatically if they crack or break, due to their ability to change in response to the environments change. In addition, imagine self-assembly furniture. Since 3D printing a furniture is limited by the size of the printer, 4D printing could allow to just print a flat board that will curl up into a chair by just adding water or light to it. Imagine it as a more complex version of the video below. g configurations over time in response to environmental stimuli.......And it goes on & on, the future would amaze Asimov himself with all these 3D & 4D applications that are just around the corner, Sincerely, Topseeker