Polymer Composite Manufacturing by FDM 3D Printing Technology

Abstract

3D printing technology was developed nearly 30 years ago. One of its characteristics is that instead of removing materials, 3D printing creates 3D elements directly from CAD models, adding one layer of material on another. This offers a beneficial capability of making complex elements in terms of shape and materials, impossible to be manufactured by traditional methods. Owing to intensive research in recent years, considerable progress has been achieved in the development and commercialisation of new innovative processes of 3D printing by fused deposition modeling (FDM), including printing of composite materials. The study outlines the main methods of creating polymer composite structures using FDM technology.