Composite Based Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) has become an extremely popular manufacturing process due to the immense potential it holds for the development of new products and applications across a wide range of industries. Due to its capacity to produce complicated geometries with little to no waste, it is frequently employed in fast prototyping processes. The growing popularity of polymer composite-based additive manufacturing is due to its versatility for printing with various reinforcements at a relatively lower overall melting temperature, as well as its extrudability and adhesive properties in 3D printed parts. This chapter has briefly covered a variety of 3D printing methods for polymer-based additive manufacturing by discussing the working principles of each AM process. With the input of some recent papers on polymer composite based AM, several reinforcing strategies have been presented along with their improvement on mechanical properties of AM polymer composites. The effects of 3D printing parameters on the composite mechanical properties and the selection methods of printing parameters for improved product performance of AM Polymer composites have been discussed. The internal porosity contributing to the poor strength, and poor dimensional accuracy and surface roughness of 3D printed parts are found to be the two major drawbacks of AM polymer composites. Therefore, the effectiveness of several frequently used post-processing methods on the defect reduction and properties enhancement of AM polymer composites have been reviewed. Finally, a brief discussion on future research scope on the area of AM polymer composites has been added in the chapter.