A few months ago I found something fascinating in the field of materials. Programmable materials. Materials that can assemble themselves in the right conditions. How can you apply these materials in an eco-effective design?
How does it work?
“Self-Assembly is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through local interaction.[...]this phenomenon is scale-independent and can be utilized for self-constructing and manufacturing systems at nearly every scale.” [...] the key ingredients for self-assembly are a simple set of responsive building blocks, energy and interactions that can be designed within nearly every material and machining process available.”[1] “In self-assembling systems, individual parts move towards a final state, whereas in self-organizing systems, components move between multiple states, oscillate and may never come to rest in a final configuration."[2]
“Self-Assembly is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through local interaction.[...]this phenomenon is scale-independent and can be utilized for self-constructing and manufacturing systems at nearly every scale.” [...] the key ingredients for self-assembly are a simple set of responsive building blocks, energy and interactions that can be designed within nearly every material and machining process available.”[1] “In self-assembling systems, individual parts move towards a final state, whereas in self-organizing systems, components move between multiple states, oscillate and may never come to rest in a final configuration."[2]
Some of the self-assembly materials are programmable materials. “Programmable Materials consist of material compositions that are designed to become highly dynamic in form and function, yet they are as cost-effective as traditional materials, easily fabricated and capable of flat-pack shipping and self-assembly. These new materials include: self-transforming carbon fiber, printed wood grain, custom textile composites and other rubbers/plastics, which offer unprecedented capabilities including programmable actuation, sensing and self-transformation, from a simple material.”[3] For activation of the material different mediums can be used, for example temperature, moisture or interaction between rigid and stretch materials.
These Programmable materials are also called 4D materials, as the shape of the object can change over time with a specific medium. Another example of 4D materials are “objects printed with a single color [that] may be transformed into multiple colors after manufacture using various triggers. Similarly objects can be designed to have colors that change dynamically in response to temperature, light of other triggers.”[4]
How could this be applied for eco-effective designing?
When the right materials are used (fully biodegradable or recyclable) the technique of self assembly could create new ways of combining materials for eco-effective products. For example opening and closing without the need of extra materials. In textile for example I can imagine that the combined use of rigid and stretch materials, as you saw in the video, could create an alternative locking mechanism instead of using zippers, buttons or velcro.
It could also mean that items can now be made out of one material with multiple properties instead of mixing different materials which makes recycling more difficult.
It is an interesting field to further be explored.
At www.selfassemblylab.net you find multiple examples including video’s.
When the right materials are used (fully biodegradable or recyclable) the technique of self assembly could create new ways of combining materials for eco-effective products. For example opening and closing without the need of extra materials. In textile for example I can imagine that the combined use of rigid and stretch materials, as you saw in the video, could create an alternative locking mechanism instead of using zippers, buttons or velcro.
It could also mean that items can now be made out of one material with multiple properties instead of mixing different materials which makes recycling more difficult.
It is an interesting field to further be explored.
At www.selfassemblylab.net you find multiple examples including video’s.
RSS Feed
