Additive Manufacturing for Plastics: Latest Advances and Future Challenges
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Processing and Engineering".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 10
Special Issue Editor
Interests: polymer processing; additive manufacturing; biofabrication; CAD-CAM
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the 1990s, the first technologies developed for rapid prototyping (now known as additive manufacturing) were those that processed polymeric materials, including both thermoplastics and photopolymers. At the time, these technologies were suitable for formal and functional prototypes; however, at present, given the rapid advancement of technology, they are used to produce final products and are fundamental to many aspects of industrial production. This Special Issue seeks innovative research on additive manufacturing processes with plastic materials, from material formulation and characterization to process parameters, innovative equipment development, final part quality, and advanced AM design tools. Research on the use of AI in different elements of the AM value chain is also welcome, and the applications in various sectors (aerospace, medical, automotive, electronics, etc.) may be discussed. The main AM technologies that will be considered for the processing of plastics are Material Extrusion (MEX), Powder Bed Fusion (PBF), VAT photopolymerization (VPP), and Material Jetting (MJT). For this Special Issue authors are encouraged to use the additive manufacturing standard vocabulary of ISO/ASTM 52900.
Prof. Dr. Mario Monzón Verona
Guest Editor
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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. Polymers 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 2700 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
- additive manufacturing
- 3D printing
- material extrusion
- powder bed fusion
- VAT photopolimerization
- material jetting
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