Morphing 3D-printed structures from flat to curved, in space

Because it's costly and cumbersome to transport large structures such as satellite dishes into space, aerospace Ph.D. student Ivan Wu and his advisor, Jeff Baur in The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, developed a creative and efficient energy-saving method to morph 2D structures into curved 3D structures while in space.

Wu said what others have done using low energy resulted in shapes with very low stiffness which wouldn't work for aerospace purposes.

"In this case, our collaborators in the Beckman Institute developed a recipe for a pure resin system that's very energy efficient. And we have a 3D printer that can print commercial aerospace-grade composite structures. I think the breakth

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