Researchers led by H. Jerry Qi, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, is using heat and mechanical pressure to transform flat objects into three-dimensional structures. They printed an unfolded box with glassy polymer fibers — a composite material that has “shape memory behavior” — along the folds. They heated it, pulled on the sides and cooled it, and the flat structure responded by folding into a box.
via 4-D Printing Means Building Things That Build Themselves : All Tech Considered : NPR.
