Additive Manufacturing of Polymer Matrix Composite Materials with Aligned or Organized Filler Material: A Review

Abstract

The ability to fabricate polymer matrix composite materials with continuous or discontinuous filler material, oriented in a user-specified direction, enables implementing designer material properties, such as anisotropic mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. Conventional fabrication methods rely on a mold, which limits specimen geometry and is difficult to implement. In contrast, additive manufacturing, including fused filament fabrication or fused deposition modeling, direct ink writing, or stereolithography, combined with a method to align filler material such as a mechanical force or an electric, magnetic, shear force, or ultrasound wave field, enables 3D printing polymer matrix composite material specimens with complex geometry and aligned filler material, without the need for a mold. Herein, we review the combinations of fabrication and filler material alignment methods used to fabricate polymer matrix composite materials, in terms of operating and design parameters including size, resolution, print speed, filler material alignment time, polymer matrix and filler material requirements, and filler manipulation requirements. The operating envelope of each fabrication method is described and their advantages, disadvantages, and limitations are discussed. Finally, different combinations of 3D printing and filler material alignment methods in the context of important engineering applications, such as structural materials, flexible electronics, and shape-changing materials, are illustrated.

UV assisted photo reactive polyether‐polyesteramide resin for future applications in 3D printing

“…[1][2][3] Stereolithography (SLA) technology, which is based on a layer-by-layer photopolymerization process and was the first proposed 3D printing concept, [4] currently allows printing objects with high precision and smooth surface at high printing speed. [5][6][7] Advances have also been developed in other photocuring 3D printing techniques, such as digital light processing (DLP), continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) and twophoton 3D printing (TPP), which differ among them in the pattern formation and the principle of control system. [8] Unlike the thermoplastics used in extrusion 3D printing technologies, like fused deposition modeling (FDM), photosensitive polymers are thermoset plastics.…”

Using Machine Learning to Predict and Understand Complex Self‐Assembly Behaviors of a Multicomponent Nanocomposite

“…[ 21–24 ] ML has also been used to predict the self‐assembly of block copolymers, colloidal particles, and binary blends. [ 25–27 ] Notably, these systems are all compositionally well‐defined and their phase diagrams have previously been mapped. [ 28,29 ] It remains to be seen whether ML can be applied to complex multicomponent systems with three or more components and unknown phase behaviors.…”

Programming the microstructure of magnetic nanocomposites in DLP 3D printing

“…However, its advantages are not only limited to design freedom or cost reduction [3][4][5] but can also be extended to its flexibility and adaptability to new materials. Indeed, in the last few years, increasing efforts were made to explore new fields of application in the synthesis of functional materials and the fabrication of printable composites [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Among them, a new field of research has recently emerged: the printing of smart materials capable of changing their shapes and properties under the effect of external stimuli, i.e.…”