Fundamentals and Applications of 3D Printing for Novel Materials

A special issue of Machines (ISSN 2075-1702). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Manufacturing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 4284

Special Issue Editor

School of Engineering, Faculty of Innovation and Technology, Taylor’s University, Taylor's Lakeside Campus, No. 1 Jalan Taylor's, Subang Jaya 47500, Selangor DE, Malaysia
Interests: FDM 3D printing (additive manufacturing); biocomposites; polymer composites; natural fibre reinforcements; mechanical characterization; thermal characterization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the most popular among numerous criteria in IR4.0. It deposits raw materials layer-by-layer according to software programming codes, ultimately stacking up to form a 3D product. AM was designed to reduce waste materials, labor requirement during processing and increases products’ flexibility. However, there are material limitations—for example, PLA filament is the only biodegradable polymer filament in the market. There is still a massive gap, calling for the development of novel materials for 3D printing applications. Composite materials appear to be one of the solutions in addressing this issue. The scope of this Special Issue includes the fundamentals and applications of 3D printing for novel materials in engineering and other fields of study. Prospective authors are invited to submit original papers to this Special issue.  The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Fundamental study of 3D printing
  • Applications of 3D-printing materials
  • 3D printing composite
  • Polymer-based 3D-printing materials
  • Ceramic-based 3D-printing materials
  • Metal-based 3D-printing materials

Dr. Ching Hao Lee
Guest Editor

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. Machines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2400 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

  • 3D printing
  • additives manufacturing
  • biocomposites
  • green materials
  • polymer-based 3D printing materials
  • ceramic-based 3D printing materials
  • metal-based 3D printing materials

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

16 pages, 6173 KiB  
Article
Melt Pool Monitoring and X-ray Computed Tomography-Informed Characterisation of Laser Powder Bed Additively Manufactured Silver–Diamond Composites
by John Robinson, Abul Arafat, Aaron Vance, Arun Arjunan and Ahmad Baroutaji
Machines 2023, 11(12), 1037; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines11121037 - 21 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1092
Abstract
In this study, silver (Ag) and silver–diamond (Ag-D) composites with varying diamond (D) content are fabricated using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM). The L-PBF process parameters and inert gas flow rate are optimised to control the build environment and the [...] Read more.
In this study, silver (Ag) and silver–diamond (Ag-D) composites with varying diamond (D) content are fabricated using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM). The L-PBF process parameters and inert gas flow rate are optimised to control the build environment and the laser energy density at the powder bed to enable the manufacture of Ag-D composites with 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% D content. The Ag and D powder morphology are characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Ag, Ag-D0.1%, Ag-D0.2% and Ag-D0.3% tensile samples are manufactured to assess the resultant density and tensile strength. In-process EOSTATE melt pool monitoring technology is utilised as a comparative tool to assess the density variations. This technique uses in-process melt pool detection to identify variations in the melt pool characteristics and potential defects and/or density deviations. The resultant morphology and associated defect distribution for each of the samples are characterised and reported using X-ray computed tomography (xCT) and 3D visualisation techniques. Young’s modulus, the failure strain and the ultimate tensile strength of the L-PBF Ag and Ag-D are reported. The melt pool monitoring results revealed in-process variations in the build direction, which was confirmed through xCT 3D visualisations. Additionally, the xCT analysis displayed density variations for all the Ag-D composites manufactured. The tensile results revealed that increasing the diamond content reduced Young’s modulus and the ultimate tensile strength. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals and Applications of 3D Printing for Novel Materials)
Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 21139 KiB  
Article
Advancements in 3D-Printed Novel Nylon-6: A Taguchi Method for Surface Quality Sustainability and Mechanical Properties
by Ray Tahir Mushtaq, Mohammed Alkahtani, Aqib Mashood Khan and Mustufa Haider Abidi
Machines 2023, 11(9), 885; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines11090885 - 02 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1057
Abstract
This research aims to establish the ideal settings for Nylon-6 (PA6) three-dimensional printing utilizing the fused filament production process and examine the resultant surface roughness. ANOVA, S/N ratio, and modeling are explained, along with their application in identifying the ideal values for surface [...] Read more.
This research aims to establish the ideal settings for Nylon-6 (PA6) three-dimensional printing utilizing the fused filament production process and examine the resultant surface roughness. ANOVA, S/N ratio, and modeling are explained, along with their application in identifying the ideal values for surface roughness, sustainability, and mechanical properties. Average-surface roughness (Ra), root-mean-squared surface roughness (Rq), print time (PT), print energy (PE), and tensile testing (T) were explored as response parameters to identify the impact of PA6 parameters (layer thickness, extrusion temperature, print speed, and infill density). Tests of validity demonstrated a significant decline in Ra, Rq, PE, PT, and T for the ideal values of the developed product of 10.58 µm and 13.3 µm, 23 min, 0.13 kWh, and 42.7 Mpa, respectively. Ra, Rq, PT, PE, and T have all been optimized using Taguchi techniques as a preliminary step towards application in future research and prototypes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals and Applications of 3D Printing for Novel Materials)
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 3811 KiB  
Article
Hybrid 3D Printing of Functional Smart Hinges
by Lily Raymond, Erick Bandala, Weijian Hua, Kellen Mitchell, Thulani Tsabedze, Kaitlin Leong, Jun Zhang and Yifei Jin
Machines 2023, 11(7), 686; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines11070686 - 29 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1558
Abstract
Smart hinges fabricated using three-dimensional (3D) printing have been accepted in the aerospace, robotics, and biomedical fields since these devices possess a shape memory characteristic. Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are the preferred materials for creating smart hinges due to their ability to achieve [...] Read more.
Smart hinges fabricated using three-dimensional (3D) printing have been accepted in the aerospace, robotics, and biomedical fields since these devices possess a shape memory characteristic. Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are the preferred materials for creating smart hinges due to their ability to achieve programmable complex geometries. However, fabricating SMPs with embedded components remains a challenge due to the constraints of current 3D printing methods and material limitations. This study investigated the use of a hybrid 3D printing method, direct ink writing (DIW), and embedded 3D printing (e-3DP) to print smart hinges with an embedded circuit to act as a strain sensor. The main components of the SMP included tert-Butyl acrylate (tBA) and aliphatic urethane diacrylate (AUD), but this SMP ink had a low viscosity and could not be used for DIW or e-3DP. Fumed silica (FS) was added to the SMP to tune its rheology, and it was shown that the FS concentration significantly affected the rheological properties, dry-out process, filament geometries, and self-supporting capabilities. This study presents a hybrid 3D printing approach for creating smart hinges with internal strain sensors in one step, demonstrating the versatility of DIW/e-3DP. The findings from this work provide a foundational and reliable technical solution to efficiently fabricate functional, self-monitoring, smart devices from SMPs for diverse applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fundamentals and Applications of 3D Printing for Novel Materials)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop