Development of Shape Memory Polymer Actuator Fabricated Using Fused Deposition Modeling 3D Printer

Among intelligent materials, shape memory polymers (SMPs) exhibit significant changes in their Young's moduli near the glass transition temperature (T g ), demonstrating unique properties such as shape fixity and shape recovery.On the other hand, additive manufacturing has attracted worldwide attention as a new manufacturing technology, including fused deposition modeling (FDM), which allows the easy fabrication of arbitrary shapes by melting and layering thermoplastic resin filaments.When molding an SMP using an FDM 3D printer, molecular orientation occurs owing to the nozzle movement, generating residual stress in the printed object.This stress is released upon heating, thereby changing the after-molding shape.By utilizing this property, we can develop SMP actuators that operate upon heating using an FDM 3D printer.In this paper, a new shape memory method that utilizes the molecular orientation of an SMP element fabricated by FDM 3D printing is presented, and the deformation characteristics of an SMP actuator that exhibits bending behavior using this method is investigated.