Early-stage experiments at北卡罗来纳州立大学（NCSU）产生了新的3D打印智能材料类。磁性反应性和类似于网眼的设计，这种材料可能会导致未来的浮动机器人能够drug delivery, or active scaffolds suitable fortissue engineering。
目前，显示了3D打印的智能材料，模仿了水横流昆虫的运动（也称为池塘溜冰者，水skeeters以及显然是耶稣的虫子 - 出于明显的原因）。它抓住了小物体，并在看起来更像是一个魔术的动作中携带（然后掉下）水珠。
奥林·维勒夫教授, S. Frank and Doris Culberson Distinguished Professor at NCSU and corresponding author on a paper detailing this new material comments, “This research shows capabilities in the emerging field of combining3 d打印技术和软机器人。”
3D打印具有完全灵活性
The new 3D printable smart material from NCSU is a flexible, elastomer-based polymer. For activation, the polymer has been impregnated with iron particles that respond to a magnetic field. When combined, these two ingredients make a paste, which was 3D printed by the team using a custom built syringe barrel and CNC mini-mill setup.
The exact way that the iron particles in the material respond to a magnetic field is determined by the 3D design of the material. Professor Velev explains, “With 3D printing, we can control the shape before and after the application of the magnetic field,”
“结构也是辅助性的，这意味着它们可以朝各个方向扩展和收缩。”
未来的软机器人技术
Experimenting with the auxetic meshes, the Velev Research Group created three different demonstrative structures: a simple magnetic mesh, an extending grabber, and a water dispenser. In each of these designs the mesh takes on a slightly different shape, for example, the spaces in the mesh appear much tighter in the dispenser than those in the simple mesh.
对于运动，所有物体都是装满水的培养皿中的地方。在盘下，有一个电磁体。通过打开和关闭电磁体，研究人员刺激了上面的浮子网格中的预编程响应。例如，延伸的抓刀用于捕获一个小的箔球。
Velev教授说：“目前，这是软机器人执行器的早期概念概念，”尽管该团队正在朝着这种智能材料的下一步迈进。正如已发表的研究结论所详述的：“这种结构的未来研究可能需要制作智能，多重调试，2D和3D的熟悉材料和设备”，”
进一步说,“这磁活化致动器的新类s enabled by this 3D printing technique enables fabrication of a with potential applications, spanning active tissue scaffolds for cell cultures and various types of soft robots mimicking creatures that live on the surface of water.”
“3D‐Printed Silicone Soft Architectures with Programmed Magneto‐Capillary Reconfiguration” is published online inAdvanced Materials Technologies。The paper is co-authored by Sangchul Roh, Lilian B. Okello, Nuran Golbasi, Jameson P. Hankwitz, Jessica A.‐C. Liu, Joseph B. Tracy and Orlin D. Velev.
这是您的年度研究团队吗？提名Velev Group，更多2019 3D Printing Industry Awards。
For more 3D printing research updates subscribe to the3D打印行业通讯，像我们一样Facebookand follow us onTwitter。考虑3D Printing Jobs为您的下一个研究机会。
特色图像显示了3D打印的Ultrasoft磁网。通过Sangchul Roh剪辑
