Thanks to a new 3D printing method that allows the creation of micro-thin “magnetic muscles,” scientists were able to create a 3D printed origami structure that can be used to deliver medicines in targeted ways to the body. The technique is promising early on for the treatment of ulcers.
Xiaomeng Fang, assistant professor in the Wilson College of Textiles exclaimed, “Traditionally, magnetic actuators use the kinds of small rigid magnets you might put on your refrigerator. You place those magnets on the surface of the soft robot, and they would make it move. With this technique, we can print a thin film which we can place directly onto the important parts of the origami robot without reducing its surface area much.”
A new 3D printing technique can create paper-thin “magnetic muscles,” which can be applied to origami structures to make them move.
By infusing rubber-like elastomers with materials called ferromagnetic particles, researchers at North Carolina State University 3D printed a thin magnetic film which can be applied to origami structures. When exposed to magnetism, the films acted as actuators which caused the system to move, without interfering with the origami structure’s motion.
This type of soft magnet is unique in how little space it takes up, says Xiaomeng Fang, assistant professor in the Wilson College of Textiles and lead author of a paper on the technique.