Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming Technology
Abstract Due to their light‐weight and cost‐effectiveness, cellular thermoplastic foams are considered as important engineering materials. On the other hand, additive manufacturing or 3D printing is one of the emerging and fastest growing manufacturing technologies due to its advantages such as desi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Advanced Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202105701 |
| _version_ | 1818025459536887808 |
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| author | Mohammadreza Nofar Julia Utz Nico Geis Volker Altstädt Holger Ruckdäschel |
| author_facet | Mohammadreza Nofar Julia Utz Nico Geis Volker Altstädt Holger Ruckdäschel |
| author_sort | Mohammadreza Nofar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Due to their light‐weight and cost‐effectiveness, cellular thermoplastic foams are considered as important engineering materials. On the other hand, additive manufacturing or 3D printing is one of the emerging and fastest growing manufacturing technologies due to its advantages such as design freedom and tool‐less production. Nowadays, 3D printing of polymer compounds is mostly limited to manufacturing of solid parts. In this context, a merged foaming and printing technology can introduce a great alternative for the currently used foam manufacturing technologies such as foam injection molding. This perspective review article tackles the attempts taken toward initiating this novel technology to simultaneously foam and print thermoplastics. After explaining the basics of polymer foaming and additive manufacturing, this article classifies different attempts that have been made toward generating foamed printed structures while highlighting their challenges. These attempts are clustered into 1) architected porous structures, 2) syntactic foaming, 3) post‐foaming of printed parts, and eventually 4) printing of blowing agents saturated filaments. Among these, the latest approach is the most practical route although it has not been thoroughly studied yet. A filament free approach that can be introduced as a potential strategy to unlock the difficulties to produce printed foam structures is also proposed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:16:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8a8698572fa64419bb687b907b91ca25 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2198-3844 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T04:16:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advanced Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-8a8698572fa64419bb687b907b91ca252022-12-22T02:02:35ZengWileyAdvanced Science2198-38442022-04-01911n/an/a10.1002/advs.202105701Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming TechnologyMohammadreza Nofar0Julia Utz1Nico Geis2Volker Altstädt3Holger Ruckdäschel4Sustainable and Green Plastics Laboratory Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department Faculty of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering Istanbul Technical University Istanbul 34469 TurkeyDepartment of Polymer Engineering University of Bayreuth Bayreuth 95447 GermanyDepartment of Polymer Engineering University of Bayreuth Bayreuth 95447 GermanyDepartment of Polymer Engineering University of Bayreuth Bayreuth 95447 GermanyDepartment of Polymer Engineering University of Bayreuth Bayreuth 95447 GermanyAbstract Due to their light‐weight and cost‐effectiveness, cellular thermoplastic foams are considered as important engineering materials. On the other hand, additive manufacturing or 3D printing is one of the emerging and fastest growing manufacturing technologies due to its advantages such as design freedom and tool‐less production. Nowadays, 3D printing of polymer compounds is mostly limited to manufacturing of solid parts. In this context, a merged foaming and printing technology can introduce a great alternative for the currently used foam manufacturing technologies such as foam injection molding. This perspective review article tackles the attempts taken toward initiating this novel technology to simultaneously foam and print thermoplastics. After explaining the basics of polymer foaming and additive manufacturing, this article classifies different attempts that have been made toward generating foamed printed structures while highlighting their challenges. These attempts are clustered into 1) architected porous structures, 2) syntactic foaming, 3) post‐foaming of printed parts, and eventually 4) printing of blowing agents saturated filaments. Among these, the latest approach is the most practical route although it has not been thoroughly studied yet. A filament free approach that can be introduced as a potential strategy to unlock the difficulties to produce printed foam structures is also proposed.https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.2021057013D printingadditive manufacturingfoamingmicrocellular foamsreviewsthermoplastics |
| spellingShingle | Mohammadreza Nofar Julia Utz Nico Geis Volker Altstädt Holger Ruckdäschel Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming Technology Advanced Science 3D printing additive manufacturing foaming microcellular foams reviews thermoplastics |
| title | Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming Technology |
| title_full | Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming Technology |
| title_fullStr | Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming Technology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming Technology |
| title_short | Foam 3D Printing of Thermoplastics: A Symbiosis of Additive Manufacturing and Foaming Technology |
| title_sort | foam 3d printing of thermoplastics a symbiosis of additive manufacturing and foaming technology |
| topic | 3D printing additive manufacturing foaming microcellular foams reviews thermoplastics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202105701 |
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