A Review on Filament Materials for Fused Filament Fabrication

Abstract

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is one of the most popular additive manufacturing (AM) processes that utilize thermoplastic polymers to produce three-dimensional (3D) geometry products. The FFF filament materials have a significant role in determining the properties of the final part produced, such as mechanical properties, thermal conductivity, and electrical conductivity. This article intensively reviews the state-of-the-art materials for FFF filaments. To date, there are many different types of FFF filament materials that have been developed. The filament materials range from pure thermoplastics to composites, bioplastics, and composites of bioplastics. Different types of reinforcements such as particles, fibers, and nanoparticles are incorporated into the composite filaments to improve the FFF build part properties. The performance, limitations, and opportunities of a specific type of FFF filament will be discussed. Additionally, the challenges and requirements for filament production from different materials will be evaluated. In addition, to provide a concise review of fundamental knowledge about the FFF filament, this article will also highlight potential research directions to stimulate future filament development. Finally, the importance and scopes of using bioplastics and their composites for developing eco-friendly filaments will be introduced.

Feasibility of Producing Core-Shell Filaments through Fused Filament Fabrication

“…Ai et al (2021) continued the previous work [ 12 ] by studying the dimensional accuracy of core-shell filaments of PC, cPC, or PC-ABS core and HDPE shell produced via conventional extrusion. The study highlights that the extrusion temperature does not significantly influence the tensile properties of the core-shell filaments [ 17 ].…”

“…The appearance of multi-material extrusion systems introduced new opportunities in 3D printing, boosting the quality of the parts (e.g., by using soluble support structure) or the part’s performance under stress (e.g., by producing multi-material components) [ 10 ] and has led to new research in the layer bond formation of parts made of similar and dissimilar materials [ 11 ]. Besides these, introducing composite materials (e.g., particle reinforced, short carbon, glass, or aramid fibre reinforced) improved the mechanical properties, giving more stability to the components [ 8 , 10 , 12 ].…”

“…The development of co-extrusion equipment allowed parts’ reinforcement with continuous fibres of glass, aramid, or carbon. This way, the mechanical properties of the component produced via FFF registered a significant performance improvement [ 7 , 12 , 13 ], but implies the acquisition of new hardware.…”

Review on Additive Manufacturing of Multi-Material Parts: Progress and Challenges

“…In many cases, a product produced from thermoplastic filaments cannot meet a set of specific functional requirements. The properties of built parts are often inadequate when compared to the properties of injection molded parts [68] . Thus, the composite materials are viewed as the viable option to meet these requirements.…”

“…Different fibers such as glass, rice husk, and carbon with different lengths are mixed with polymers for composite filament preparation. The properties of a fiber composite depend on the properties of fibers and matrix, fiber volume fraction, alignment of fibers, the interfacial bond between fibers and matrix, and void content [68]…”