Polymer 3D Printing: A review of techniques with their advantages, limitations, and industrial application

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is one of the modern and rapidly developing technology that has great potential to transform the manufacturing industry. It involves the layer by layer deposition of materials to create three dimensional objects directly from a digital model, making it possible easily produce highly complex and intricate designs. Nowadays, polymer 3D printing is one of the most popular fields of additive manufacturing technology, which uses several techniques to print parts using polymers or plastic materials. Several types of polymer 3D printing techniques are thoroughly reviewed in this study, along with their benefits, limitations, and industrial uses. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Stereolithography (SLA), Selective Layer Sintering (SLS), and PolyJet are the four main techniques that are covered in detail. Each method is discussed in detail, along with its working principle, benefits, and drawbacks. Furthermore, the current research work examines the industrial applications of polymer 3D printing, which include the aerospace, automotive, medical, and consumer goods industries. The mentioned industries have taken advantage of special capabilities of 3D printing to produce complex parts with more design flexibility, improved efficiency, and lower costs. The paper provides concrete instances of how 3D printing has been implemented across various industries, along with the advantages it has yielded. It was aimed that this review will serve as a valuable resource for researchers and engineers who are interested in the potential of polymer 3D printing technology in modern manufacturing.