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Polymers
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Advances in Additive Manufacturing of Polymers
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Advances in Additive Manufacturing of Polymers

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Processing and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 September 2024) | Viewed by 1856

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesco Mollica

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
Interests: natural-fiber-filled polymers; non-newtonian fluid mechanics; composites; 3D printing; mechanical modeling; biomaterials; tissue engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Valentina Mazzanti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
Interests: polymeric and composite materials; manufacturing and compounding processes; innovative plastics filled with natural fibers; mechanical properties; rheological properties; thermal properties; 3D printing; ageing and degradation phenomena; tribology and wear
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing of polymeric materials is arguably the newest and most interesting set of plastics manufacturing methods that have been developed in the last 20 to 30 years. Indeed, as is well known, there are a large number of different techniques for polymers, the most popular ones being based on photopolymerization, material jetting, powder bed fusion and material extrusion. Despite additive manufacturing initially being thought of and applied for the realization of prototypes, it has recently gained popularity in household settings and even for small-scale production at an industrial level, and it is expected to grow even more, its market reaching about 20 billion dollars by 2033.

There are many reasons for this success, such as the possibility of realizing complex shapes, customizability, low cost for limited productions, and the affordability of printing apparatus for some additive manufacturing techniques, to cite just a few of them. Applications are still in their infancy and range from jewelry to biomedical devices and automotive, and much innovation is indeed devoted to this issue since it still is a relatively novel field of research.

On the other hand, as the various additive manufacturing techniques are not completely mature, several problems have also arisen that need to be solved. Perhaps the most important one is the processing time, but we can also count the relatively limited choice of polymers that are available, the cost of the raw materials, the mechanical properties of the final part and sometimes its aesthetical quality. One of the biggest issues arising in the additive manufacturing of plastics is eco-sustainability, since its increasing usage will inevitably lead to a large quantity of plastics produced worldwide, and this would in turn pose serious problems from an environmental point of view.

The aim of this Special Issue is to share information that can contribute to tackling and solving some of the problems discussed above, thus leading to much-needed improvements in this field. Research and review articles about all currently available additive manufacturing techniques, as well as novel ones, are warmly welcomed.

Dr. Francesco Mollica
Dr. Valentina Mazzanti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • processing
  • design
  • mechanical properties
  • rheology
  • viscoelasticity
  • additives and compounding
  • applications
  • life cycle assessment
  • degradation and biodegradability
  • natural-fiber-filled polymers

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1777 KiB  
Article
A New Processing Method for Laser Sintering Polymer Powders at Low Bed Temperatures
by Lanti Yang, Hao Gu and Zahir Bashir
Polymers 2024, 16(23), 3301; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16233301 - 26 Nov 2024
Abstract
Most current laser sintering (LS) machines for polymer powders operate with a maximum bed temperature of 200 °C, limiting the use of higher melting polymers like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which melts at ~250 °C. Using bed temperatures of ≤200 °C leads to severe [...] Read more.
Most current laser sintering (LS) machines for polymer powders operate with a maximum bed temperature of 200 °C, limiting the use of higher melting polymers like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which melts at ~250 °C. Using bed temperatures of ≤200 °C leads to severe part-distortion due to curl and warpage during the sintering process. The paper presents a processing method for LS at low bed temperatures, using an in situ printed anchor film to conquer curl and warpage. With the use of the anchor film, PET parts were successfully printed without machine stoppage at bed temperatures as low as 150 °C, which is about 80 °C lower than the bed temperature for a regular process for PET without the anchor film. The anchor film acts as a frictional restraint, effectively preventing the curling and warping during printing that typically result from crystallization-induced shrinkage at low bed temperatures. Whereas previous studies have employed 13 mm thick anchoring sheets bolted to the machine to prevent curl and warpage at low bed temperatures, our method uses a flexible in situ printed ~70 μm thick film to which the built part naturally adheres. The in situ printed film is easily detachable from the part after the build. The standard LS material, polyamide 12 (PA12), was also printed with lowered bed temperaturewhere the benefit would be reduced thermal degradation of the powder and decreased energy consumption during the sintering process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Additive Manufacturing of Polymers)
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14 pages, 6004 KiB  
Article
Effect of Thermal Shock Conditions on the Low-Cycle Fatigue Performance of 3D-Printed Materials: Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, Acrylonitrile-Styrene-Acrylate, High-Impact Polystyrene, and Poly(lactic acid)
by Marcin Głowacki, Adam Mazurkiewicz, Katarzyna Skórczewska, Krzysztof Lewandowski, Emil Smyk and Ricardo Branco
Polymers 2024, 16(13), 1823; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16131823 - 27 Jun 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1314
Abstract
3D printing technology is becoming a widely adopted alternative to traditional polymer manufacturing methods. The most important advantage of 3D printing over traditional manufacturing methods, such as injection molding or extrusion, is the short time from the creation of a new design to [...] Read more.
3D printing technology is becoming a widely adopted alternative to traditional polymer manufacturing methods. The most important advantage of 3D printing over traditional manufacturing methods, such as injection molding or extrusion, is the short time from the creation of a new design to the finished product. Nevertheless, 3D-printed parts generally have lower strength and lower durability compared to the same parts manufactured using traditional methods. Resistance to the environmental conditions in which a 3D-printed part operates is important to its durability. One of the most important factors that reduces durability and degrades the mechanical properties of 3D-printed parts is temperature, especially rapid temperature changes. In the case of inhomogeneous internal geometry and heterogeneous material properties, rapid temperature changes can have a significant impact on the degradation of 3D-printed parts. This degradation is more severe in high-humidity environments. Under these complex service conditions, information on the strength and fatigue behavior of 3D-printed polymers is limited. In this study, we evaluated the effects of high humidity and temperature changes on the durability and strength properties of 3D-printed parts. Samples made of commonly available materials such as ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), ASA (Acrylonitrile-Styrene-Acrylate), HIPS (High-Impact Polystyrene), and PLA (Poly(lactic acid)) were subjected to temperature cycling, from an ambient temperature to −20 °C, and then were heated to 70 °C. After thermal treatment, the samples were subjected to cyclic loading to determine changes in their fatigue life relative to non-thermally treated reference samples. The results of cyclic testing showed a decrease in durability for samples made of ASA and HIPS. The ABS material proved to be resistant to the environmental effects of shocks, while the PLA material exhibited an increase in durability. Changes in the internal structure and porosity of the specimens under temperature changes were also evaluated using microcomputed tomography (microCT). Temperature changes also affected the porosity of the samples, which varied depending on the material used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Additive Manufacturing of Polymers)
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