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Advances in 3D Printing Technologies: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications
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Advances in 3D Printing Technologies: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Manufacturing Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2026 | Viewed by 3768

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Chenchen Tian

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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Interests: 3D printing; digital design; biomedical engineering
Dr. Yi Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Interests: 3D printing; biomaterials; lattice structures
Prof. Dr. Quanquan Han

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Interests: additive manufacturing; metal 3D printing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a creative and magic manufacturing method to form complex components. 3D printing is a new manufacturing technology developed based on the concept of "discrete-stacking" additive manufacturing. Compared with the subtractive manufacturing, 3D printing has many advantages, including infinite structural design space, infinite material design space, and powerful complex structural manufacturing capabilities. Common materials for 3D printing include metal, resin, ceramic, and composite. Common processes for 3D printing include Powder Bed Fusion (PBF), Direct Energy Deposition (DED), Stereolithography (SLA), Digital Light Processing (DLP), Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), etc.

The Special Issue called “Advances in 3D Printing Technologies: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications” offers a platform for researchers to share the cutting-edge research. The Special Issue covers all aspects of 3D printing technology, especially serving for mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, including design and simulation for 3D printing, materials and processes for 3D printing, quality and detection for 3D printing, etc.

Dr. Chenchen Tian
Dr. Yi Lu
Prof. Dr. Quanquan Han
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • additive manufacturing
  • design and optimization
  • modeling and simulation
  • material and process
  • quality and detection

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 10058 KB  
Article
Advanced Manufacturing of PLA Surgical Templates for Orbital Floor Geometry: Optimizing Fidelity and Surface Morphology via Variable Layer Height MEX 3D Printing
by Paweł Turek, Grzegorz Budzik, Łukasz Przeszłowski, Anna Bazan, Bogumił Lewandowski, Paweł Pakla, Tomasz Dziubek, Robert Brodowski, Małgorzata Zaborniak, Jan Frańczak and Michał Bałuszyński
Materials 2026, 19(6), 1208; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19061208 - 19 Mar 2026
Viewed by 364
Abstract
Precise orbital floor reconstruction requires personalised surgical templates that combine high geometric fidelity with manufacturing efficiency. This study presents and validates the TARMM procedure, developed to optimise the production of polylactide (PLA) templates. A key innovation is the integration of advanced machine learning [...] Read more.
Precise orbital floor reconstruction requires personalised surgical templates that combine high geometric fidelity with manufacturing efficiency. This study presents and validates the TARMM procedure, developed to optimise the production of polylactide (PLA) templates. A key innovation is the integration of advanced machine learning algorithms (Random Forest) and Mitchell–Netravali interpolation to reduce medical reconstruction artefacts, as well as the implementation of Material Extrusion (MEX) technology with Variable Layer Height (VLH). This strategy minimises the stair-step effect on complex anatomical curvatures while maintaining high process throughput. The results demonstrate that the TARMM procedure ensures a geometric error within ±0.1 mm. A strong linear correlation (r = 0.99) was found between layer height and surface roughness (Sa), indicating that a 0.07 mm layer in critical areas significantly improves template morphology and facilitates the contouring of titanium meshes. The clinical validation across 21 cases confirmed a 30 min reduction in surgical preparation time. The developed method serves as a low-cost, high-precision alternative to photopolymerization technologies, contributing to modern 3D printing applications in maxillofacial surgery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in 3D Printing Technologies: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications)
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22 pages, 8806 KB  
Article
Strut Size-Dependent Compressive Behavior and Failure Mechanisms of Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion NiTi Octahedral Porous Scaffolds
by Ning Zhang, Wangwei Zhan, Hongsen Liu, Chuanhui Huang, Guangqing Zhang, Yinghong Zhang and Jinguo Ge
Materials 2026, 19(5), 951; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma19050951 - 28 Feb 2026
Viewed by 445
Abstract
Nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys are attractive for functional and biomedical applications due to their shape memory effect, superelasticity, and favorable corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. In this work, the influence of strut size on the compressive response of laser-based powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) fabricated NiTi [...] Read more.
Nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys are attractive for functional and biomedical applications due to their shape memory effect, superelasticity, and favorable corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. In this work, the influence of strut size on the compressive response of laser-based powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) fabricated NiTi ortho-octahedral porous scaffolds was systematically investigated using combined experiments and finite element simulations. Four scaffold designs with identical unit-cell size (2 mm) but different strut sizes (280, 320, 360, and 400 μm) were fabricated, and their forming quality and deformation behaviors were examined. The as-built scaffolds exhibited high geometric fidelity to the CAD models and stable manufacturability across the investigated parameter range. Quasi-static compression tests revealed a typical three-stage response (linear-elastic regime, plateau/collapse regime, and densification), with both elastic modulus and compressive strength increasing markedly with strut size. Specifically, the modulus increased from 1.17 to 4.28 GPa and the compressive strength increased from 155 to 564 MPa as the strut size increased from 280 to 400 μm. A pronounced oscillatory plateau was observed for the 280 μm scaffolds, indicating progressive layer-by-layer collapse, whereas larger struts promoted a shear-band-dominated failure mode characterized by an approximately 45° fracture zone. Explicit quasi-static simulations reproduced the experimentally observed collapse sequence and demonstrated that stress preferentially concentrates at nodal junctions, with load transfer dominated by struts aligned with the loading direction. The agreement between experiments and simulations confirms the predictive capability of the proposed modeling framework and provides mechanistic insights into geometry-controlled failure. These findings establish a structure-property-failure relationship for PBF-LB/M-fabricated NiTi octahedral scaffolds and offer practical guidance for tailoring stiffness, strength, and collapse mode through strut-size design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in 3D Printing Technologies: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications)
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18 pages, 6936 KB  
Article
Anisotropic Behavior in Microstructures and Properties of Refractory Tungsten Metal Produced by Laser Powder Bed Fusion
by Jinguo Ge, Heming Wu, Hongsen Liu, Yanan Zhu, Yan Chen, Wangwei Zhan, Liang Zhang and Zhuming Liu
Materials 2025, 18(16), 3910; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18163910 - 21 Aug 2025
Viewed by 1280
Abstract
This work employed laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology to prepare pure tungsten (W) metal components and investigated their internal defects, microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties within the horizontal and vertical planes to evaluate their anisotropic behavior. The steep temperature gradient and extremely [...] Read more.
This work employed laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology to prepare pure tungsten (W) metal components and investigated their internal defects, microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties within the horizontal and vertical planes to evaluate their anisotropic behavior. The steep temperature gradient and extremely rapid cooling rate during the LPBF process caused the as-deposited W grains to grow in a columnar crystal structure along the vertical height direction, with cracks propagating along the high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs). Although the near-equiaxed W grains within the horizontal plane were finer than the epitaxial grains within the vertical plane, the increased number of cracks within the horizontal plane weakened the fine-grained strengthening effect, resulting in lower hardness and wear resistance within the horizontal plane than within the vertical plane. The wear behavior transformed from a comprehensive wear mechanism involving delamination wear and abrasive wear within the vertical plane to an abrasive wear mechanism with slight adhesive wear within the horizontal plane. The reported results demonstrate that the anisotropic behavior of hardness and wear resistance within the different deposition planes was mainly attributed to the differences in microstructure and crack distribution between the horizontal and vertical planes of LPBF-fabricated W parts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in 3D Printing Technologies: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications)
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Review

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26 pages, 3859 KB  
Review
Research Progress on Additively Manufactured Diamond Tools
by Chenchen Tian, Chi Chen, Yi Wan and Xuekun Li
Materials 2025, 18(24), 5540; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18245540 - 10 Dec 2025
Viewed by 1013
Abstract
With their exceptional hardness and wear resistance, diamond tools hold an irreplaceable position in critical fields such as precision machining, geological exploration, and construction engineering. However, traditional manufacturing processes like powder metallurgy still face numerous limitations in terms of structural design optimization, the [...] Read more.
With their exceptional hardness and wear resistance, diamond tools hold an irreplaceable position in critical fields such as precision machining, geological exploration, and construction engineering. However, traditional manufacturing processes like powder metallurgy still face numerous limitations in terms of structural design optimization, the controllability of diamond particle distribution, and the shortening of production cycles. In recent years, additive manufacturing has emerged as a disruptive technology that precisely constructs three-dimensional structures in a layer-by-layer manner, offering new possibilities for the customized design and functionally integrated manufacturing of high-performance and complex-structured diamond tools. This paper systematically reviews the recent research progress on the additive manufacturing of diamond tools. It focuses on summarizing the fabrication characteristics and performance of metal-bonded diamond tools, resin-bonded diamond tools, and ceramic-bond diamond tools prepared by different additive manufacturing processes. On this basis, the paper further discusses the key technical challenges and future development directions in this field, with the aim of providing a theoretical reference and technical guidance for the design optimization and engineering applications of additively manufactured diamond tools. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in 3D Printing Technologies: Design, Manufacturing, and Applications)
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