Chapter 5

4D Printing of Polymers

Sivanagaraju Namathoti

Sivanagaraju Namathoti

School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT-AP University, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India

Search for more papers by this author
Pavan Kumar Gurrala

Pavan Kumar Gurrala

Mechanical Engineering Department, SoT, Pandit Deendayal Energy University - PDEU, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

Search for more papers by this author
Prakash Chandra

Prakash Chandra

Mechanical Engineering Department, SoT, Pandit Deendayal Energy University - PDEU, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

Search for more papers by this author
M. R. K. Vakkalagadda

M. R. K. Vakkalagadda

School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT-AP University, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 21 May 2025

Summary

4D printing (3D printing of shape memory material (SMM)) has many applications in engineering structures, biomedical scaffolds, electronic devices, and automotive parts. Among all SMM, shape-memory polymers (SMPs) have greater flexibility in manufacturability, higher shape recovery percentage, and capability of responding to various external stimuli (heat, magnetic field, pH value, electric field, etc.). Along with the multiple advantages of using SMPs, 3D printing (3DP) fulfills the requirement of fabricating complex parts, further enhancing the use of SMPs for large applications. SMPs can be 4D printed by various techniques, such as fused deposition modeling (FDM), polyjet printing, digital light printing (DLP), and direct ink-writing (DIW). This chapter presents insights into 4D printing techniques of SMPs, polymer materials, and their behavior. Further, this chapter provides insights about one-way and two-way SMPs along with their applications.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.