We propose Inkjet 4D Print, a self-folding fabrication method of 3D origami tessellations by printing 2D patterns on both sides of a heat-shrinkable base sheet, using a commercialized inkjet ultraviolet (UV) printer. Compared to the previous folding-based 4D printing approach using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers [An et al., Thermorph, CHI2018], our method has merits in (1) more than 1200 times higher resolution in terms of the number of self-foldable facets, (2) 2.8 times faster printing speed, and (3) optional full- color decoration. This paper describes the material selection, the folding mechanism, the heating condition, and the printing patterns to self-fold both known and freeform tessellations. We also evaluated the self-folding resolution, the printing and transformation speed, and the shape accuracy of our method. Finally, we demonstrated applications enabled by our self-foldable tessellated objects.
Selected Publication
- Koya Narumi*, Kazuki Koyama*, Kai Suto, Yuta Noma, Hiroki Sato, Tomohiro Tachi, Masaaki Sugimoto, Takeo Igarashi, and Yoshihiro Kawahara. 2023. Inkjet 4D Print: Self-folding Tessellated Origami Objects by Inkjet UV Printing. ACM Trans. Graph. 42, 4 (August 2023), 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3592409 (* joint first authors)
- Koya Narumi*, Kazuki Koyama*, Kai Suto, Yuta Noma, Hiroki Sato, Tomohiro Tachi, Masaaki Sugimoto, Takeo Igarashi, and Yoshihiro Kawahara. 2023. Inkjet 4D Print: Self-folding Tessellated Origami Objects by Inkjet UV Printing. ACM Trans. Graph. 42, 4 (August 2023), 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3592409 (* joint first authors)
Selected Press & Media
- Press release (Japanese)
- Press release (English)
- CNN (English)
- WIRED (Japanese)
- Press release (Japanese)
- Press release (English)
- CNN (English)
- WIRED (Japanese)