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Polymers
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Additive Manufacturing of Reinforced Polymers
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Additive Manufacturing of Reinforced 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 (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 9631

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Haroon Mahmood

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, via Sommarive 9, 38123 Trento, Italy
Interests: carbon nanomaterials; polymer composites; mechanics of materials; structural health monitoring; self-healing polymers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have provided the industry with strong opportunities for the development of lightweight composite materials. As such, AM offers several advantages over conventional processes such as high level of automation, fabrication of complex designs, reduced time from designing to testing, etc. However, researchers and scientists face various issues, such as imperfections and the cost of equipment and materials. Additionally, the use of fiber-reinforced composites presents more challenges such as fiber placement, fiber seizing, fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion, etc. Hence, the full adoption of AM by industries for the production of reinforced polymer parts is still far from realization.

This Special Issue is an opportunity for researchers and scientists to share their findings and experiences in research on additive manufacturing of reinforced polymer composites. It is my pleasure to invite full-length papers with original research, review papers, and communications for this Special Issue on 3D printing and additive manufacturing, principles, and challenges.

Dr. Haroon Mahmood
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. 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

  • 3D printing
  • additive manufacturing
  • fused deposition modeling
  • composites
  • reinforced polymers
  • fibers

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

31 pages, 27482 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Thermoplastic Composite Recycling on the Additive Manufacturing Process and In-Use Phase as Candidate Materials for Wearable Devices Applications
by Alexandra Papatheodorou, Iakovos Gavalas, Despoina Ntenekou and Anna Karatza
Polymers 2023, 15(18), 3775; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15183775 - 15 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1168
Abstract
Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a popular additive manufacturing (AM) method for creating thermoplastic parts with intricate geometrical designs. Pure thermoplastic materials utilized in FFF, whose polymeric matrix is reinforced with other materials, such as carbon fibers (CFs), introduce products with advanced mechanical [...] Read more.
Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a popular additive manufacturing (AM) method for creating thermoplastic parts with intricate geometrical designs. Pure thermoplastic materials utilized in FFF, whose polymeric matrix is reinforced with other materials, such as carbon fibers (CFs), introduce products with advanced mechanical properties. However, since not all of these materials are biodegradable, the need for recycling and reuse immediately emerges to address the significant problem of how to dispose of their waste. The proposed study evaluates the printability, surface morphology and in vitro toxicity of two thermoplastic-based composite materials commonly used in wearable device manufacturing to provide enhanced properties and functionalities, making them suitable for various applications in the field of wearable devices. Tritan Copolyester TX1501 with 7.3% chopped CFs (cCFs) and Polyamide 12 (PA12) with 8.6%cCFs and 7.5% iron Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs)—Fe4O3 were used in the discrete ascending cycles of recycling, focusing on the surface quality performance optimization of the printed parts. Through stereoscopy evaluation, under-extrusion, and over-extrusion defects, as well as non-uniform material flow, are assessed in order to first investigate the influence of various process parameters’ application on the printing quality of each material and, second, to analyze the optimal value fluctuation of the printing parameters throughout the recycling cycles of the materials. The results indicate that after applying certain adjustments to the main printing parameter values, the examined recycled reinforced materials are still effectively 3D printed even after multiple cycles of recycling. A morphology examination using scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed surface alterations, while a cytotoxicity assessment revealed the adverse effects of both materials in the form of cell viability and the release of proinflammatory cytokines in the cell culture medium. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Reinforced Polymers)
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19 pages, 7472 KiB  
Article
Fused Filament Fabrication of Short Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polylactic Acid Composites: Infill Density Influence on Mechanical and Thermal Properties
by Lucia-Antoneta Chicos, Mihai Alin Pop, Sebastian-Marian Zaharia, Camil Lancea, George Razvan Buican, Ionut Stelian Pascariu and Valentin-Marian Stamate
Polymers 2022, 14(22), 4988; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14224988 - 17 Nov 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1602
Abstract
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) is one of the frequently used material extrusion (MEX) additive manufacturing processes due to its ability to manufacture functional components with complex geometry, but their properties depend on the process parameters. This paper focuses on studying the effects of [...] Read more.
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) is one of the frequently used material extrusion (MEX) additive manufacturing processes due to its ability to manufacture functional components with complex geometry, but their properties depend on the process parameters. This paper focuses on studying the effects of process parameters, namely infill density (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%), on the mechanical and thermal response of the samples made of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) reinforced with short glass fibers (GF) produced using FFF process. To perform a comprehensive analysis, tensile, flexural, compression, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) tests were used. The paper also aims to manufacture by FFF process of composite structures of the fuselage section type, as structural elements of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and their testing to compression loads. The results showed that the tensile, flexural and compression strength of the additive manufactured (AMed) samples increased with the increase of infill density and therefore, the samples with 100% infill density provides the highest mechanical characteristics. The AMed samples with 50% and 75% infill density exhibited a higher toughness than samples with 100% infill. DSC analyses revealed that the glass transition (Tg), and melting (Tm) temperature increases slightly as the infill density increases. Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) show that PLA-GF filament loses its thermal stability at a temperature of about 311 °C and the increase in fill density leads to a slight increase in thermal stability and the complete degradation temperature of the AMed material. The compression tests of the fuselage sections manufactured by FFF made of PLA-GF composite showed that their stiffening with stringers oriented at an angle of ±45° ensures a higher compression strength than the stiffening with longitudinal stringers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Reinforced Polymers)
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27 pages, 10459 KiB  
Article
Comparison of Models to Predict Mechanical Properties of FR-AM Composites and a Fractographical Study
by Juan Leon-Becerra, Octavio Andrés González-Estrada and Heller Sánchez-Acevedo
Polymers 2022, 14(17), 3546; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14173546 - 29 Aug 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1674
Abstract
Continuous fiber-reinforced additive manufacturing (cFRAM) composites improve the mechanical properties of polymer components. Given the recent interest in their mechanical performance and failure mechanisms, this work aims to describe the principal failure mechanisms and compare the prediction capabilities for the mechanical properties, stiffness [...] Read more.
Continuous fiber-reinforced additive manufacturing (cFRAM) composites improve the mechanical properties of polymer components. Given the recent interest in their mechanical performance and failure mechanisms, this work aims to describe the principal failure mechanisms and compare the prediction capabilities for the mechanical properties, stiffness constants, and strength of cFRAM using two distinct predictive models. This work presents experimental tensile tests of continuous carbon fiber AM composites varying their reinforced fraction, printing direction, and fiber angle. In the first predictive model, a micromechanical-based model for stiffness and strength predicts their macroscopic response. In the second part, data-driven models using different machine learning algorithms for regression are trained to predict stiffness and strength based on critical parameters. Both models are assessed regarding their accuracy, ease of implementation, and generalization capabilities. Moreover, microstructural images are used for a qualitative evaluation of the parameters and their influence on the macroscopic response and failure surface topology. Finally, we conclude that although predicting the mechanical properties of cFRAM is a complex task, it can be carried on a Gaussian process regression and a micromechanical model, with good accuracy generalized onto different process parameters specimens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Reinforced Polymers)
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23 pages, 6822 KiB  
Article
Consolidation of Additive Manufactured Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polyamide 12 Composites and the Development of Process-Related Numerical Simulation Methods
by Stefan Grieder, Igor Zhilyaev, Marco Küng, Christian Brauner, Michael Akermann, Jonas Bosshard, Petra Inderkum, João Francisco, Yannick Willemin and Martin Eichenhofer
Polymers 2022, 14(16), 3429; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14163429 - 22 Aug 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2229
Abstract
Additive manufacturing of high-performance polymers—such as PA12, PPS, PEEK, and PEKK—combined with industrial-grade carbon fibers with a high fiber volume ratio of up to 60% allows a weight reduction of over 40% compared to classic metal construction. Typically, these 3D-printed composites have a [...] Read more.
Additive manufacturing of high-performance polymers—such as PA12, PPS, PEEK, and PEKK—combined with industrial-grade carbon fibers with a high fiber volume ratio of up to 60% allows a weight reduction of over 40% compared to classic metal construction. Typically, these 3D-printed composites have a porosity of 10–30% depending on the material and the printing process parameters, which significantly reduces the quality of the part. Therefore, the additive manufacturing of load-bearing structural applications requires a proper consolidation after the printing process—the so-called ‘additive fusion technology’—allowing close to zero void content in the consolidated part. By means of the upfront digital modeling of the consolidation process, a highly optimized composite component can be produced while decreasing the number of expensive prototyping iterations. In this study, advanced numerical methods are presented to describe the consolidation process of additive manufactured continuous carbon fiber reinforced composite parts based on the polyamide 12 (PA12) matrix. The simulation of the additive fusion step/consolidation provides immediate accuracy in determining the final degree of crystallization, process-induced deformation and residual stresses, final engineering constants, as well as porosity. The developed simulation workflow is demonstrated and validated with experimental data from consolidation tests on the final porosity, thickness, and fiber–volume ratio. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Reinforced Polymers)
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21 pages, 10105 KiB  
Article
Influence Mechanism of Ultrasonic Vibration Substrate on Strengthening the Mechanical Properties of Fused Deposition Modeling
by Wenzheng Wu, Jialin Li, Jili Jiang, Qingping Liu, Aodu Zheng, Zheng Zhang, Ji Zhao, Luquan Ren and Guiwei Li
Polymers 2022, 14(5), 904; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14050904 - 24 Feb 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1972
Abstract
Fused deposition modeling is the most widely used 3D-printing technology, with the advantage of being an accessible forming process. However, the poor mechanical properties of the formed parts limit its application in engineering. Herein, a new ultrasonic-assisted fused deposition modeling 3D-printing method was [...] Read more.
Fused deposition modeling is the most widely used 3D-printing technology, with the advantage of being an accessible forming process. However, the poor mechanical properties of the formed parts limit its application in engineering. Herein, a new ultrasonic-assisted fused deposition modeling 3D-printing method was proposed to improve the mechanical properties of the formed parts. The effects of ultrasonic vibration substrate process parameters and printing process parameters on the tensile and bending properties of formed samples were studied. The tensile strength and bending strength of the samples printed with a 12 μm ultrasonic amplitude can be increased by 13.2% and 12.6%, respectively, compared with those printed without ultrasonic vibration. The influence mechanism of ultrasonic vibration on mechanical properties was studied through microscopic characterization and in situ infrared monitoring experiments. During the printing process, increasing the ultrasonic vibration and temperature employed via the ultrasonic substrate can reduce the pore defects inside the sample. The mechanical properties of FDM-formed samples can be controlled by adjusting ultrasonic-assisted process parameters, which can broaden the application of 3D printing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Reinforced Polymers)
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