Exploring Smart Material Applications for COVID-19 Pandemic Using 4D Printing Technology

Abstract

Today, in the medical field, innovative technological advancements support healthcare systems and improve patients’ lives. 4D printing is one of the innovative technologies that creates notable innovations in the medical field. For the COVID-19 pandemic, this technology proves to be useful in the manufacturing of smart medical parts, which helps treat infected patients. As compared to 3D printing, 4D printing adds time as an additional element in the manufactured part. 4D printing uses smart materials with the same printing processes as being used in 3D printing technology, but here the part printed with smart materials change their shape with time or by the change of environmental temperature, which further creates innovation for patient treatments. 4D printing manufactures a given part, layer by layer, by taking input of a virtual (CAD) model and uses smart material. This paper studies the capability of smart materials and their advancements when used in 4D printing. We have diagrammatically presented the significant parts of 4D printing technology. This paper identifies 11 significant applications of 4D printing and then studies which one provides innovative solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.