Morphing nozzle offers new control of fibre alignment

Fibre-filled composites are made up of short fibres that can enhance properties such as part strength or electrical conductivity. The challenge is that these properties are based on the orientations of the short fibres, which has been difficult to control during the 3D printing process.

4D printed metamaterials take shape for morphing wings

"When 3D printing with the morphing nozzle, the power lies on their side actuators, which can be inflated like a balloon to change the shape of the nozzle, and in turn, the orientations of the fibres," said Ryan Sochol, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering and director of the Bioinspired Advanced Manufacturing (BAM) Laboratory at UMD's A. James Clark School of Engineering. The team’s findings have been published in Advanced Materials Technologies.

To demonstrate their new approach, the researchers concentrated on 4D printing applications. "4D printing refers to the relatively new concept of 3D printing objects that can reshape or transform depending on their environment," said co-author and UMD mechanical engineering professor David Bigio. "In our work, we looked at how printed parts swelled when submerged in water, and specifically, if we could alter that swelling behaviour using our morphing nozzle."