An assessment of the materials used for additive manufacturing: Current trends and processing issues

Abstract

Additive manufacturing, often known as 3D printing, is a breakthrough industrial technology that employs computerized design files to layer products one by one. This study discusses the application of one such progressive manufacturing approach. AM is flexible, adaptable, highly configurable and can be tailored to suit the needs of most sectors of industrial production. An overview of the various materials appropriate with each 3D printing process has been presented. The literature reviewed has shown that issues such as incompatible material and the costs of materials are still to be addressed, even though 3D printing is becoming more widely used. There may be a broad range of materials that can be used to produce these parts and objects. These include combinations in form of composite products, hybrids, or functional graded materials such as metals, ceramics, and polymers. To accomplish this performance through anticipatory and replicative methods, a large amount of work is still needed at AM about its two major enabling technology namely AM materials and AM metrology. The positive aspect is that industry is extremely proactive in establishing AM as one of the most prominent manufacturing engineering methods.