A Taiwanese OEM (original equipment manufacturer) may have designed the first 4D printer. Leaked pictures, which were briefly posted on a tech blog before being taken down apparently in response to pressure from the company, show a prototype roughly the size of a washing machine, with features reminiscent of the current generation of 3D printers.
Although clearly unfinished, the device is seen to have a custom moulded and branded plastic case, suggesting it could be close to launch. However, a source claiming to have worked for the company until recently told the ProtoShimbun blog that the printer, dubbed Kirii, was more likely to be wholesaled as a ‘white label’ product. The manufacturer was said to be in talks with leading names in the conventional printer market.
According to the source, the 4D breakthrough came when engineers combined the stereolithography process used in 3D printers with a material similar to Liquidmetal, the amorphous metal alloy exclusively licensed by Apple. The process was inspired by origami, a popular pastime in Taiwan: ‘As yet origami may be used to create dynamic forms only from paper, so this act is to create a dynamic molecule structure from single material.’
Kirii seems to exploit known properties of amorphous alloys, which are being investigated by Apple and others for use in fuel cells, to store energy within the structure of printed models, while using techniques pioneered in nanotechnology – scaled up to the relatively coarse resolution of laser stereolithography – to build complex moving parts. The result is an object that can incorporate its own engine, gears and lifetime battery. Test prints are said to include working miniature cars, hovercraft, and a butterfly that flutters in the hand and propels itself across a room when released.
Prnilla Stofaio, a researcher at Newcastle University’s Materials Science Centre, told MacUser: ‘Although the concept is plausible, we would be surprised to see an affordable device for consumer use within the next five years. The potential is there but there are a lot of problems to be solved.’ At the time of going to press, the ProtoShimbun website had not responded to requests for comment.
