Additive Manufacturing of Polymer Materials: Progress, Promise and Challenges

Overview

Journal Polymers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Date 2021 Mar 6

PMID 33670934

Citations 61

Authors

Saad Saleh Alghamdi

Sabu John

Namita Roy Choudhury

Naba K Dutta

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The use of additive manufacturing (AM) has moved well beyond prototyping and has been established as a highly versatile manufacturing method with demonstrated potential to completely transform traditional manufacturing in the future. In this paper, a comprehensive review and critical analyses of the recent advances and achievements in the field of different AM processes for polymers, their composites and nanocomposites, elastomers and multi materials, shape memory polymers and thermo-responsive materials are presented. Moreover, their applications in different fields such as bio-medical, electronics, textiles, and aerospace industries are also discussed. We conclude the article with an account of further research needs and future perspectives of AM process with polymeric materials.

Citing Articles

Innovative Method for Determining the Toxicometric Index of Polymer Materials with the Example of Polyurethane and Polyvinyl Chloride.

Glowacki A, Rybinski P Polymers (Basel). 2025; 17(4).

PMID: 40006129 PMC: 11859082. DOI: 10.3390/polym17040467.

Enhancing Patient-Centric Drug Development: Coupling Hot Melt Extrusion with Fused Deposition Modeling and Pressure-Assisted Microsyringe Additive Manufacturing Platforms with Quality by Design.

Nyavanandi D, Mandati P, Vidiyala N, Parupathi P, Kolimi P, Mamidi H Pharmaceutics. 2025; 17(1).

PMID: 39861666 PMC: 11769097. DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics17010014.

Sustainable Multi-Cycle Physical Recycling of Expanded Polystyrene Waste for Direct Ink Write 3D Printing and Casting: Analysis of Mechanical Properties.

Garcia-Sobrino R, Cortes A, Sevilla-Garcia J, Munoz M Polymers (Basel). 2025; 16(24.

PMID: 39771459 PMC: 11678470. DOI: 10.3390/polym16243609.

Chess-like Pieces Realized by Selective Laser Sintering of PA12 Powder: 3D Printing and Micro-Tomographic Assessment.

Colucci G, Fontana L, Barberi J, Vitale Brovarone C, Messori M Polymers (Basel). 2025; 16(24.

PMID: 39771378 PMC: 11678726. DOI: 10.3390/polym16243526.

Effects of Building Orientation and Raster Angle on the Mechanical Properties of Selected Materials Used in FFF Techniques.

Dziewit P, Rajkowski K, Platek P Materials (Basel). 2025; 17(24.

PMID: 39769675 PMC: 11728033. DOI: 10.3390/ma17246076.

References

Placone J, Engler A . Recent Advances in Extrusion-Based 3D Printing for Biomedical Applications. Adv Healthc Mater. 2017; 7(8):e1701161. PMC: 5954828. DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201701161. View

Shimizu K, Fujita H, Nagamori E . Oxygen plasma-treated thermoresponsive polymer surfaces for cell sheet engineering. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2010; 106(2):303-10. DOI: 10.1002/bit.22677. View

Dorishetty P, Dutta N, Choudhury N . Bioprintable tough hydrogels for tissue engineering applications. Adv Colloid Interface Sci. 2020; 281:102163. DOI: 10.1016/j.cis.2020.102163. View

Durga Prasad Reddy R, Sharma V . Additive manufacturing in drug delivery applications: A review. Int J Pharm. 2020; 589:119820. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2020.119820. View

Gallup N, Pringle A, Oberloier S, Tanikella N, Pearce J . Parametric nasopharyngeal swab for sampling COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses: Open source design, SLA 3-D printing and UV curing system. HardwareX. 2020; 8:e00135. PMC: 7455530. DOI: 10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00135. View

Athukoralalage S, Balu R, Dutta N, Choudhury N . 3D Bioprinted Nanocellulose-Based Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications: A Brief Review. Polymers (Basel). 2019; 11(5). PMC: 6572377. DOI: 10.3390/polym11050898. View

Zastrow M . 3D printing gets bigger, faster and stronger. Nature. 2020; 578(7793):20-23. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-020-00271-6. View

Balu R, Dutta N, Dutta A, Choudhury N . Resilin-mimetics as a smart biomaterial platform for biomedical applications. Nat Commun. 2021; 12(1):149. PMC: 7794388. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20375-x. View

Wang K, Pan W, Liu Z, Wallin T, van Dover G, Li S . 3D Printing of Viscoelastic Suspensions via Digital Light Synthesis for Tough Nanoparticle-Elastomer Composites. Adv Mater. 2020; 32(25):e2001646. DOI: 10.1002/adma.202001646. View

10.

Kadry H, Wadnap S, Xu C, Ahsan F . Digital light processing (DLP) 3D-printing technology and photoreactive polymers in fabrication of modified-release tablets. Eur J Pharm Sci. 2019; 135:60-67. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejps.2019.05.008. View

11.

Ligon S, Liska R, Stampfl J, Gurr M, Mulhaupt R . Polymers for 3D Printing and Customized Additive Manufacturing. Chem Rev. 2017; 117(15):10212-10290. PMC: 5553103. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.7b00074. View

12.

Nielsen A, Beauchamp M, Nordin G, Woolley A . 3D Printed Microfluidics. Annu Rev Anal Chem (Palo Alto Calif). 2019; 13(1):45-65. PMC: 7282950. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-anchem-091619-102649. View

13.

Cicala G, Ognibene G, Portuesi S, Blanco I, Rapisarda M, Pergolizzi E . Comparison of Ultem 9085 Used in Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) with Polytherimide Blends. Materials (Basel). 2018; 11(2). PMC: 5848982. DOI: 10.3390/ma11020285. View

14.

Luong D, Subramanian A, Silva G, Yoon J, Cofer S, Yang K . Laminated Object Manufacturing of 3D-Printed Laser-Induced Graphene Foams. Adv Mater. 2018; 30(28):e1707416. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201707416. View

15.

Ho C, Mishra A, Lin P, Ng S, Yeong W, Kim Y . 3D Printed Polycaprolactone Carbon Nanotube Composite Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering. Macromol Biosci. 2016; 17(4). DOI: 10.1002/mabi.201600250. View

16.

Miao S, Castro N, Nowicki M, Xia L, Cui H, Zhou X . 4D printing of polymeric materials for tissue and organ regeneration. Mater Today (Kidlington). 2018; 20(10):577-591. PMC: 5796676. DOI: 10.1016/j.mattod.2017.06.005. View

17.

Jones N . Science in three dimensions: the print revolution. Nature. 2012; 487(7405):22-3. DOI: 10.1038/487022a. View

18.

Mao Q, Wang Y, Li Y, Juengpanich S, Li W, Chen M . Fabrication of liver microtissue with liver decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) bioink by digital light processing (DLP) bioprinting. Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2020; 109:110625. DOI: 10.1016/j.msec.2020.110625. View

19.

Raviv D, Zhao W, McKnelly C, Papadopoulou A, Kadambi A, Shi B . Active printed materials for complex self-evolving deformations. Sci Rep. 2014; 4:7422. PMC: 4270353. DOI: 10.1038/srep07422. View

20.

Shen Y, Tang H, Huang X, Hang R, Zhang X, Wang Y . DLP printing photocurable chitosan to build bio-constructs for tissue engineering. Carbohydr Polym. 2020; 235:115970. DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.115970. View