From the idea of 3D Printing to 6D Printing
By: Akriti Upadhyay
Tags: 4d Printing, 3D Printing, 5d Printing, 6d Printing

In the 1980s, Rapid prototyping was discovered which begin the new era of manufacturing and it got its fame with the name “Additive Manufacturing” or “3D Printing”. It is the manufacturing process that described the layer-by-layer approach — a process that makes a physical object by stacking and fusing the thin layers of material in succession to form the required product from a CAD model.

Despite all the miracles & applications of 3D printing in various industries including aerospace, military, medical, automobile, and construction, it has acquired only less than 2% of the manufacturing sector.

3D Printing

3D printing is like printing your drawing in a life-size scale model or making a drawing and getting that in real, which is interesting. But it faced some challenges, like the imperfect final product, longer production durations, post-processing requirements, etc. Researchers started finding the solution for these challenges and they found a solution that led to the development of 4D Printing.

In 2012, Skylar Tibbits during the TED Conference at MIT showed that how the structures which are formed by 3D Printing are transforming with time, and thus, added time as a new dimension to 3D Printing, and introduced 4D Printing. With time as the fourth dimension in additive manufacturing, researchers found smart materials useful, and they can help to produce complex structures with shape memory effect. The products made from 4D Printing can reshape with time, for this we need only pre-programmed commands from the computer. These objects can self-assemble themselves when they come to the exposure of heat, light, water, air, etc. due to the chemical reactions of materials used in it.

4D Printing techniques with corresponding stimuli

4D Printing triggered innovation in the field of manufacturing. It brought bio-inspired metamaterials, multi-materials, and smart materials to get their way for being manufactured. We can see the stimuli and responses of those man-made 4D printed objects. Isn’t it interesting? It can repair by itself, and it also has self-adaptability properties. It is just giving a partial life to a man-made object. As nothing is perfect, challenges stroked 4D Printing also, including difficulty in smart material loading, low modulus, low strength, less stability in environment temperature, etc. To overcome these limitations, 5D Printing was introduced.

Rotation of Printer head in 5D Printing

In 2016, MERL introduced 5D Printing. The addition of the rotation of the extruder head and rotation of the printer bed as new axes converted 3D Printing technique into 5D Printing. The main concept was to print the objects in 5 different axes including the x, y, and z-axis altogether at 5 degrees of freedom. In this process, the printed part moves with the printing of the printer head in 5 directions, and the print bed also moves forward and backward along with the x, y, and z-axis. It can form curved layers instead of flat layers with high strength and 25% less material than 3D Printing. It got most of the attention in the medical industry. But, in clearing the limitations of 4D Printing, one thing was missed. 5D printed objects have no such stimuli and response as 4D printed objects. The missed dimension was time.

The innovation which was triggered by 4D Printing attracted researchers, and this year, in 2021, they found the new exciting concept of 6D Printing. 6D Printing combines both 4D and 5D printing techniques, i.e., using 5 degrees of freedom to create the final object, but with smart material which makes this manufacturing process intelligent. It means, the stimuli and responses of the objects which we were seeing in 4D printed objects, we can also see it in 6D printed objects. Resulting 6D printed objects will be 3–4 times stronger, more effective, and will use less material in manufacturing as compared to 4D Printing.

It leads to new developments that will increase the production of lighter and stronger parts, increase product efficiency, resulting in low material cost. The high sensitivity of 6D printed objects to external stimuli will open doors in many industries ranging from medical to aerospace to AI.